Kittykins' Pizza Palace
by Erin T. Aardvark
Summary: Mario takes on the role of nightwatchman at a supposedly haunted pizza restaurant and arcade. Based on the fan-made game, "Mario in Animatronic Horror." Rated T, as a precaution.
1. Welcome to Kittykins'

_AUTHOR'S NOTE: This fanfic was inspired by a fan-made game, "Mario in Animatronic Horror." I haven't played the game (nor do I want to, I'm a chicken), but I've seen plenty of play throughs on YouTube, and sometimes, that's all I need to create something (some games I need to play myself to write the story, and others I can use a play-through). However, I am not using the FNAF characters (sorry, FNAF fans), I'm using my own, as well as the "Super Mario Super Show" canon (erm, sort of. I'm kind of mixing canons here). Mario and friends belong to Nintendo, "Mario in Animatronic Horror" belongs to Dark Box and Bonniefan 3000. The Parker family and Kittykins' Pizza Palace, associated characters, and employees belong to me. Also, for all intents and purposes, this story is set in 1989._

* * *

_Plumber's Log Number 1983_

_We had warped into Central City, one of the few places in the Mushroom Kingdom that was inhabited by humans. We were there because we got a letter about a local restaurant being haunted. We decided to check it out, though it took quite a bit of persuading to get Luigi to agree to this._

* * *

Mario and Princess Toadstool were dragging Luigi by the arms toward the entrance of Kittykins' Pizza Palace, while Toad was pushing him from behind. Luigi was adamant in staying outside.

"Come on, Luigi!" Toad shouted. "It's just a pizza parlor! There's nothing to worry about!"

"I'm not going in there!" Luigi shouted, trying to pull out of his friends' grips. "You heard what everybody said! It's h-h-haunted!"

"Oh Luigi!" the Princess shouted. "Of course it's not haunted!"

"Yeah, it's just a family friendly pizza place," Mario said. "You'll see it's just like the Chuck E. Cheese's we've got back in Brooklyn!"

"Then if that's the case, I'm _def_initely not going!" Luigi shouted. He was about ready to turn and run off, but Mario grabbed him by the straps of his overalls.

"Don't tell me you're _still _afraid of those animatronic characters!" Mario shouted. "Come on, bro! It's been eighteen years! Don't you think you should be over that by now?"

"Well . . . ." Luigi said, hesitantly.

"What are you talking about?" Toad asked.

"Oh, it's a long story," Luigi said. "You don't wanna hear it."

"Sure I do!" Toad shouted. "What's the story?"

"Well, when Luigi was five years old . . . ." Mario started, but Luigi clapped his hand over his brother's mouth before he could say anything else.

"Never mind!" Luigi shouted. "Look, if I agree to go in this place, do you promise _not_ to tell Toad and Princess Toadstool about . . . . you know what?"

"Okay, okay, I promise," Mario said, pulling his brother's hand away from his mouth.

"Aw, nuts!" Toad shouted. "It sounded like it was going to be an interesting story!"

"Come on, you guys," Princess Toadstool said, opening the door. "Let's see what's going on here."

The foursome entered the restaurant, and looked around. Since it was the middle of the afternoon it wasn't very busy. There were a couple of teenagers playing the arcade games, and a couple of kids in the ball pit and on the little rides, but that was about it. A bored looking teenage girl, chewing a mouthful of gum, looked at them, and rolled her eyes.

"Yeah?" she asked.

"Hi," Mario said. "We're here to see a Miss Parker."

"Wait here," the girl said.

The group figured the girl was going to go get this Miss Parker for them, but instead, she stood up straight, and looked toward another part of the restaurant.

"HEY KEVIN!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. "THESE GUYS WANNA SEE YA!"

"Thanks," Toad said, cleaning out his ear. "I think I just went deaf!"

"Whatever," the girl said, blowing a bubble with her gum.

Moments later, a man wearing a security guard's uniform came over to the group. He looked a lot friendlier than the girl did.

"Hi there," he said. "I'm Kevin Parker. One of you must be here about the night watchman position."

"Night watchman position?" Mario asked. "Uhh, no, actually. I got a call from someone named _Miss_ Parker, and she asked us to meet her here."

"There must be some mistake," the man said. "I'm the only Parker that works here. I don't understand what . . . ."

"Hi!" a female voice shouted, running over. "Are you the Mario Brothers?"

Mario and the gang turned, and saw a thirteen-year-old girl with blue eyes and blond pigtails. She smiled, and stuck her hand out.

"I'm so glad to meet you!" she shouted. "My name is Aimee Parker."

"Are you the Miss Parker that called us?" Mario asked, shaking Aimee's hand.

"That's right," Aimee said.

"Aimee, what's this about?" Kevin asked.

"Oh, nothing, Daddy," Aimee said, innocently, and she began to wind her hair around her index finger.

"She called us about this place being haunted," Toad said.

"Oh no," Kevin groaned. "Not _this_ again! Aimee, how many times do I have to tell you, this place is _not_ haunted! It's just an urban legend!"

"But Daddy . . . ." Aimee started.

"I don't want to hear it," Kevin said. "Look, I have to get back on the job. And Becky, don't call me out here unless it's someone applying for the night watchman job, okay? Otherwise, Mr. Daniels is gonna fire both us!"

"Whatever," Becky, the girl at the host podium, said, waving Kevin off, and snapping her gum.

Kevin sighed, and left the area to go back to the security office. Aimee sighed, and turned back to Mario and his friends.

"Dad doesn't believe me about this," she said. "But this place really _is_ haunted!"

"What makes you say that, Aimee?" Mario asked.

"Come with me," Aimee said. "I'll explain everything."

Aimee led the group to a booth in the restaurant area. Once they all sat down, a musical tone played over the PA system.

"Hiya, boys and girls!" an overly cheerful, giggly, female voice shouted. "It's your very best pal, Kittykins! It's almost time for our very special show, so head on over to Rudy Rat's Theater! See you there! Tee hee!"

Most of the little kids in the restaurant began to head for a door labeled "Rudy Rat's Theater," along with their parents. Immediately, Aimee started to climb out of the booth.

"Excuse me," she said. "I'll be right back."

Aimee ran toward the theater as fast as she could. Mario and the others looked at her oddly. They saw her grab the arm of a seven-year-old girl with a blond ponytail. They couldn't hear the conversation, but it looked like the two girls were arguing.

"Wonder what's going on over there?" Toad asked.

"Beats me," Mario said, as he noticed the little girl stomping her feet, and waving her arms up and down. "But that little girl looks like she's about two seconds away from a major tantrum!"

Aimee then reached into her pocket, pulled out a handful of tokens, handed them to the little girl, and pointed back to the arcade. The little girl then stomped back to the arcade, and Aimee returned to the booth.

"Sorry about that," she said.

"What was _that_ all about?" Mario asked.

"Oh . . . . uhh, nothing," Aimee said, and she began playing with her hair. "I just, uhhh . . . . had to take care of something with my little sister, that's all."

"Why didn't you let her go into the theater with the rest of the kids?" Princess Toadstool asked. "It looked to me like she just wanted to see the show."

"She did," Aimee said. "But there are rules about the theater, and one of them is no one under the age of fourteen is allowed in there by themselves. And I can't go in there with her, because I'm thirteen, and both Dad and Mom are working."

"Does your mom work here, too?" Luigi asked.

"No, but her job is so boring," Aimee said. "She works in real estate, which is why Ellen and I hang out here all the time during the summer."

"So let's get down to business," Mario said. "What makes you think this place is haunted?"

"Lots of things," Aimee said. She opened her backpack and pulled out a scrapbook. "I've been collecting newspaper articles about this place."

Mario took the scrapbook, opened it, and he and Luigi looked over some of the articles Aimee had pasted inside of it. Three of them were reports about missing children that had last been seen at the restaurant. Another one was about how one of the Kittykins animatronics malfunctioned, and crushed the skull of a child. Another one talked about the possibility of the health department shutting the restaurant down due to sanitation issues with the animatronics.

"Sounds like this place is on it's way down," Toad commented.

"What's this list?" Luigi asked, turning the page. "Night watchmen?"

"Rick Taylor, September fifth to September ninth, nineteen eighty-three," Mario read. "Jim Norton, September thirteenth to September seventeenth, nineteen eighty-three . . . . so on and so on . . . ."

"How many night watchmen has this place even had?!" Luigi shouted, noticing the list Aimee made went on for several pages.

"A lot," Aimee said. "Nobody lasts more than a week. Most quit, and a couple of them were fired, but a lot have just . . . . disappeared."

"I don't really understand," Luigi said. "What does this have to do with this place being haunted?"

"It's the Kittykins' animatronic characters," Aimee said. "They . . . . they kind of have the tendency to move around at night."

"So?" Mario asked.

"All by themselves," Aimee said again. "When they're supposed to be turned off."

Our heroes looked at Aimee as if she were completely crazy.

"They don't, really," Luigi said, starting to get nervous. "You've got to be kidding!"

"I'm not kidding," Aimee said. "I _know_ they move by themselves! I've seen the security footage of it! Unfortunately, I can't show it to you guys. Mr. Daniels, the owner, said a lot of the security footage got lost when Chuck Meiner disappeared. But he _didn't_ disappear!"

"You sound like you know what happened to him," Toad said.

"Yeah, I . . . . I kinda do," Aimee said, twirling her hair again. "I saw it on the security footage. But I don't know if I should tell you. Nobody believed me when I told them."

"Must be something huge," Toad said.

"Go on and tell us," Mario said.

"Okay," Aimee said, taking a breath. "He was killed by the Kittykins animatronic. He saw that she and the other characters weren't on the stage, and he went to check it out. He ran into Kittykins, and she attacked him, and dragged him into the back room, where they keep the animatronics' endoskeletons and costumes and stuff like that. And nobody saw him again after that. They couldn't find the body."

"R-r-r-really?" Luigi asked, nervously.

"Really," Aimee said.

"You telling those horror stories of yours again, Aimee?" a voice said.

"Yipe!" Aimee shouted, jumping nervously. The group looked up, and saw a tall, thin man leaning against the booth, smiling.

"What's the matter, sweetie?" the man asked, with a chuckle. "Did I scare you?"

"N-no, you didn't scare me, Mr. Daniels," Aimee said. "You just . . . . startled me."

It was obvious Aimee was uneasy, and Luigi couldn't blame her. He looked at Mr. Daniels, and began to feel a bit uneasy himself.

"Umm . . . . ." Aimee said. "I . . . . I gotta go check on Ellen! Bye, guys!"

Aimee practically jumped out of the booth and ran off as fast as she could. Mr. Daniels laughed, and turned to our heroes.

"That girl," he said, shaking his head.

"Who are you, anyway?" Mario asked.

"Oh, Charlie Daniels," Mr. Daniels said. "I own this fine establishment. Has Aimee been telling you this place is haunted?"

"Uh, yeah, she has," Mario said.

"Figures," Mr. Daniels said. "She tells almost everybody applying for the night watchman job about this place. Just because a couple of night watchmen quit . . . . ."

"A couple?" Toad asked. "According to this, you haven't been able to keep a night watchman for more than a week in six years!"

"That's more than a couple, Mr. Daniels," Luigi said.

Mr. Daniels shrugged, and just walked off. He had other things to do.

"There's something fishy about this place, Mario," Luigi said. "And there's something about that guy I don't like."

"Yeah, I agree, bro," Mario said.

"Me too," Toad said. "He's even creepier than King Koopa!"

"That makes it unanimous," the Princess said. "I think we should talk to Aimee a little more about this."

The others agreed. Mario stood up, and walked over toward the arcade. He found Aimee sitting on one of the skee ball games, watching her sister playing.

"Hey, Aimee," he said. "Can we talk?"

"Sure," Aimee said. "Oh, this is my little sister, Ellen. Ellen, this is Mario."

"Hi," Ellen said. "You the guy Aimee called about the haunted Kittykins?"

"She knows too, huh?" Mario asked.

"Yeah, but she hasn't seen anything," Aimee said. "Thank goodness. But she's the only one who believes me about the animatronics being haunted."

"Yeah, and Mr. Daniels is a big creep," Ellen said. "I don't like him. But he and Daddy are like best friends, which is why we get to hang out here a lot during the summer and after school."

"What makes you think he's a creep?" Mario asked. "Even though I kind of have to agree with you about that."

"He likes to walk around the arcade area," Ellen said. "Especially when it's busy. He watches all the kids around here. And he's always calling me and Aimee 'sweetie' or 'honey' or something like that."

"Normally, I don't mind it, but when Mr. Daniels does it, it gives me the creeps," Aimee said.

Mario nodded. He definitely figured there was something more to this place than met the eye. He wasn't sure he really believed it was haunted, but he knew exactly how to figure out what was going on behind the scenes.

"I think I'm going to do some undercover work," he said. "Aimee, can you get your dad out here?"

"Sure, but what for?" Aimee asked.

"I think I'm going to take that night watchman's position," Mario said.

Aimee nodded, and ran to a door marked "Employees Only," and knocked on it. Ellen just looked at Mario as if he were crazy.

"I don't think that's a good idea," she said. "I like you, Mr. Mario. And Aimee says this place is crazy at night!"

"Don't worry about me, kiddo," Mario said. "I can handle it."


	2. Night 1

At midnight, Mario was being taken on a grand tour of Kittykins' Pizza Palace. Kevin was pointing out the main areas of the establishment. He didn't normally stay that late, but Mr. Daniels had told him to show Mario the ropes.

"And this is the main dining area and show stage," he said, "also known as Rudy Rat's Theater."

Mario nodded, and looked on the stage. There he saw five large animatronic animals. There was a rat wearing a yellow vest with red polka dots and a boater hat, a rooster wearing blue overalls and a big, straw hat, a cat wearing a peach colored dress and bow, a griffin wearing a purple shirt and derby, and black and green checked pants and bowtie, and a pig wearing a yellow dress and a flower in one of her ears. Mario stared at them, suddenly feeling a little uneasy. He felt like they were staring right back at him.

"And these are the animatronic characters," Kevin said. Mario suddenly snapped back to attention once Kevin mentioned that. "From left to right, Rudy Rat, Big Chicken, Kittykins, Mervin Griffin, and Piggy Sue. The controls are in the backstage area right through here, where we also keep spare parts. The kitchen is through here, and the restrooms are over there."

Mario nodded, and Kevin led him toward the door that read "Employees Only." The two of them walked inside, and Kevin led him to the security office.

"This is basically where you'll be stationed," he explained. "This computer here lets you view each room, via security camera. Just go easy on it, the power source in this place is completely shot. It's like it runs on double A batteries, but Charlie refuses to do anything about that. Anyway, Charlie told me to give you this tape for you to listen to. It goes over everything you need to know. And don't listen to my daughter about this place being haunted, okay?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever you say," Mario said, taking an old audio cassette from Kevin.

"Well, that's about it," Kevin said. "See you at six."

With that, Kevin left, leaving Mario by himself. The red-clad plumber found an old cassette player, and put the tape inside of it to hear what it said.

"Hello?" the voice on the tape said. "Hello, hello? Uh, hi there. Welcome to Kittykins' Pizza Palace, a magical, fun-derland for kids of all ages!"

"_Fun_-derland?" Mario repeated, making a face. "That's so corny."

"So, welcome to you, insert-name-here, to our team," the voice on the tape continued. "Now, I'm sure you've heard the rumors that this place is haunted, which isn't true at all. That rumor probably got started when one of the previous night guards saw the animatronics walking around, so . . . . yeah, heh, heh. Uh, it's, uh . . . . there's this . . . . glitch in the system that lets them wander around, but you shouldn't really have a problem with that."

"Wait a sec, a glitch?" Mario asked. "If there's a glitch in the system, then why doesn't the owner try to have it fixed?"

"I really don't know how those things works, to tell you the truth. They just have the tendency to stay put during the day and wander around at night. Actually, the boss used to let them wander around during the day, too. At least he did until something happened in eighty-three. Anyway, I have to tell you, if you _do_ happen to see one of the characters up and about, it's best to just ignore them, and stay away from them. They won't recognize you as a human, and somehow, they think you're an endoskeleton, and they'll try to put you into one of the spare costumes. Which wouldn't be so bad, if the costumes weren't full of crossbeams, and wires, and animatronic stuff . . . ."

"Wait, _what?!_"

"I mean, yeah, if these things were intended to go on humans, they wouldn't have all that machine junk inside of them, now would they? But if you close the office doors from time to time, they won't be able to get in. That's about it for right now. Have a good night!"

"Have a good night, he says. Mama mia, what have I gotten myself into?"

Mario ejected the tape out of the player, and sat down in the office chair, nervously. He checked the cameras, but everything appeared to be normal. At least, that's what he thought. In the dining area, however, the animatronics began to move.

"Heads up, guys," Kittykins said. "There's a new one tonight."

"Again?" Rudy asked.

"You think it's him?" Mervin asked.

"Only one way to find out," Kittykins said. "Go check it out, BC."

"I'm on it," Big Chicken said, and he climbed off the stage, and began walking around.

Things became quiet. A little too quiet for Mario's taste. He began checking the cameras, but didn't find much of anything, until he got to the camera for the stage.

"Wait a minute," he said. "Weren't there supposed to be five animatronics? The chicken looks like he flew the coop. Better check this out."

Mario got up, and began looking around the restaurant, but everything seemed normal, with the exception of Big Chicken missing from the stage. As he looked around, he spotted the back room, where the controls for the animatronics were kept. He decided to investigate inside.

"Nothing in here," he said, looking around. "With the exception of a couple of computers, some creepy looking endoskeletons and empty character suits."

Mario continued looking around the room, and found some drawings tacked up on the wall. They were all crayon portraits of the Kittykins' characters, done by various children. Mario couldn't help but smile at them.

"Heh, heh," he chuckled. "These are pretty cute. But why would they be in here?"

Mario left the drawings, and saw another piece of paper tacked up on the wall. It looked like a page from a newspaper. The date on it was June 17, 1983. Upon further inspection, Mario noticed there was some dried blood on it.

"Mama mia!" he shouted. "What in the world is this blood doing on this paper? What's it say, anyway? Let's see, nine-year-old boy killed at Kittykins' Pizza Palace. Found inside mouth of Kittykins animatronic. Most believe it was due to a spring lock failure, but circumstances are unknown to why it happened. Owner was not happy when he heard about this incident. Yeah, I can understand that. Poor kid."

Mario then started to leave the room. It was making him extremely nervous. As he was about to exit, he heard something behind the door.

"You can't egg-nore your ol' pal, Big Chicken!" a southern-accented voice shouted. "I'm a-comin' in!"

"Big Chicken?" Mario asked. "That's one of the animatronic characters! And if that voice on the tape is right, I gotta hide!"

Mario looked around the room for a place to hide, and saw a closet. Immediately, he ran inside, and shut the door. He heard the door to the outer room open, and someone looking around.

"Come out, come out wherever you are!" Big Chicken sang. "I know you're in here!"

Mario waited inside the closet, being as quiet as possible. He heard a lot of rummaging around, as well as some clucking, then things got quiet. He contemplated taking a peek out of the door to see if Big Chicken was still around, but decided against it. Big Chicken might have stopped rummaging around and was being quiet in order to lure Mario out of the closet. Finally, he heard the outer door close. He opened the closet door slightly, and looked around. There was no sign of Big Chicken.

"Whew!" he breathed. "That was a close one. I'd better get outta here!"

Mario raced out of the storage room, looking around carefully, just in case Big Chicken was still lurking around. When he walked past the stage, however, he found something else was missing.

"Uh oh," he said. "Looks like Rudy Rat and Mervin Griffin are on the loose, too! This is gonna be a long night!"

Mario walked around a little bit, keeping an eye out for the animatronics. He heard something growl, and, thinking it was one of them, dashed into the nearest door, which turned out to be the kitchen. He heard the growl again, and realized it was his stomach.

"Wow," he said. "I never knew my stomach could be so scary! Wonder what they've got to eat around here?"

Mario looked around the kitchen, and found a pile of papers on the floor. He began digging through them, and found an old photo. There were two men standing in the photo, along with a teenage boy, a little boy, and two little girls. Mario recognized the two men immediately.

"Those are Mr. Daniels and Mr. Parker," he said. "And one of those girls looks a little like Aimee, but younger."

Mario turned the photo around to see if there was something on the back of it, to help identify who the rest of the people were. He found writing, but it wasn't a note about when the picture was taken.

_I love designing and building animatronics. It makes my kids happy. However, my younger son, Kyle, seems to be afraid of them lately. My older son, Keith, enjoys scaring him with the empty Kittykins heads. When Kyle's birthday came, it all changed. I wish it didn't have to be this way. C.D._

"C.D.," Mario said. "Wonder if that stands for Charlie Daniels? I wonder what this is all about?"

Mario put the photo in his overalls pocket, and continued investigating the kitchen. Nothing else seemed out of the ordinary, so he decided to go back to the office and check out the security cameras. Upon leaving the kitchen, he found a set of closed curtains in the corner, with an "Out of Order" sign hanging from them.

"Wonder what's in there?" he asked. He considered looking into it, but changed his mind. "Better not. Especially not with that homicidal rooster hanging around here! Better get back to the office!"

Mario immediately returned to the security office, and checked around the cameras. Everything seemed normal (with the exception of most of the animatronics missing from the stage, that is). When he got to the camera outside of the security office, he saw a large rat in a yellow and red polka-dot vest and boater hat charging.

"Mama mia!" he shouted. "Rudy's coming right at me! And he doesn't look happy!"

Immediately, Mario remembered what the voice on the audio tape said about the animatronics not being able to get into the office when the door was closed. He immediately jumped up, and slammed the door shut. He heard a loud thump against it almost immediately afterward. Then he heard Rudy grumbling, and storm off in a huff.

"Mama mia, that was close!" Mario shouted. "Better keep looking around."

Mario continued to check the security cameras, and found something next to the kitchen that wasn't there before. It looked like an old arcade game cabinet.

"Where did that come from?" he asked. "I'd better go check it out."

Mario opened the door to the office, and looked around. There seemed to be no sign of the animatronics anywhere. Slowly, he crept out, and made his way to the kitchen area as quietly as possible. He found the arcade game, and walked up to it. He pushed a button, and found a little character, in old, classic 1980's 8-bit graphic style.

"Why does he hate me?" a little boy's voice asked. "I wish he didn't hate me."

The little character walked around and the screen changed to a bedroom. The minute the little character walked inside, another character popped out from under the bed, wearing a Kittykins mask. The little character immediately went into the fetal position and began crying.

"Keith!" he shouted.

"I gotcha!" the character wearing the Kittykins head shouted, laughing hysterically. "Oh brother, Kyle, you're such a baby!"

Mario immediately turned off the game. He couldn't stand to see any more of it.

"I know siblings tend to have a rivalry with one another, but that's just too much!" he shouted. "Poor little guy. What kind of older brother would pick on his younger brother to such an extreme?Better get back to the office before the animatronics show up."

Mario walked back to the office, closed the door, and checked the security cameras again. Suddenly, the lights began to flicker, and in a split second, Mario was plunged into complete darkness.

"Uh oh . . . . ." he said, nervously.

Mario didn't know what to do next. Nobody told him how to handle a power outage. As he was trying to find a flashlight, he heard something outside the door. It sounded like a music box playing the "Toreador" song from Georges Bizet's "Carmen." He also heard someone singing as well.

_Well hello there it's_

_Your best friend Kittykins_

_Right here and now_

_Is when the fun begins_

_Hey kids, come with me_

_And let's all go and play_

_We'll run and sing _

_And shout hooray!_

_So won't you please _

_Come play with me_

_I'm Kittykins, tee hee!_

"Oh brother, who wrote _those_ lyrics?" Mario asked, rolling his eyes. "That had to have been the corniest thing I ever heard!"

Mario was suddenly snapped out of his thoughts when he heard someone banging on the door. Immediately, he jumped under the desk to hide from whoever was coming. The banging stopped after awhile, and the "Toreador" music also stopped, but Mario stayed underneath the desk. He wasn't about to come out for anything!

* * *

_AUTHOR'S NOTE: The stupid lyrics to the "Toreador" song are my own._


	3. The Morning After

Mario stayed underneath the desk until he heard an alarm clock go off. Immediately, he checked his watch. It was six a.m., and all of the animatronics had stopped moving about. Though he still wasn't sure if he wanted to come out from under the desk. Suddenly, the lights came back on, and he heard the door open.

"Hey, Mario!" a voice called out. "It's me, Kevin! Where are you?"

"Right here!" Mario shouted, crawling out from underneath the desk. "Boy, am I glad to see you, Mr. Parker! Have I got something to tell you! Your daughter is right about this place being haunted!"

"Yeah," Kevin said. "Sure. Listen, I don't know what you did last night, but you really blew out the fuses!"

"Mr. Parker, I'm serious! Kittykins, Big Chicken, and Rudy Rat all came to life last night! I think Mervin did, too. Big Chicken even tried to kill me!"

"You getting enough air in here, Mario? I keep telling Charlie to get the ventilators fixed in here, but will he listen? Noooooo . . . . ."

"But Mr. Parker . . . . ."

"Look, Mario. I'm sure you were just hallucinating. Nearly all of the night guards have! It gets stuffy in here. I swear, Charlie hasn't cleaned out the vents since eighty-three. Come on, I'll give you a lift to my place. Your friends are there already. That way, you can get some rest. You're gonna need it if you're gonna come back for another shift tonight."

"But . . . . but . . . ."

Mario decided not to go on. It was obvious Kevin wasn't going to listen to him. Instead, he followed Kevin out to his car, and went back to the Parkers' house. Both Luigi and Aimee were waiting anxiously by the front window. The minute they saw Mario come out of the car, they raced out the front door.

"Mario!" Luigi shouted, enveloping his brother in a gigantic hug. "I'm so glad to see you!"

"Yeah, me too, Luigi," Mario said. "Could you loosen up, please? You're choking me!"

"Oh, sorry!" Luigi shouted, letting go of his big brother.

"That's better," Mario said. "You were right about one thing, Aimee. That place really _is_ haunted! The animatronics came to life, and Big Chicken nearly tried to kill me! Unfortunately, your dad didn't believe me. There's something weird going on down there. Let's go inside for breakfast, and I'll tell you all about what happened last night."

Mario, Luigi, and Aimee went inside the house to discuss what happened. He even pulled out the newspaper article, and the photo he found.

"This is obviously Mr. Daniels and your dad," he said to Aimee. "But who are the kids?"

"Well, that's me," Aimee said, pointing to one of the girls in the photo. "I was seven at the time. And those are Mr. Daniels' kids. Keith, who was sixteen, Kyle, who was eight, and Jessica, who was seven. Jessica and I used to be best friends."

"Used to be?" Toad asked. "Why aren't you, anymore?"

"She moved away," Aimee said, shrugging. "Her parents split up, and she went with her mom."

"Oh," Toad said, though he had a feeling there was more to the story than Aimee was telling. But before he could ask about it, a woman with shoulder length blond hair and blue eyes came into the room.

"Hi, honey," she said, leaning down to give Aimee a kiss on the top of her head.

"Hi, Mom," Aimee said. "Mom, this is Mario, the new nightwatchman we told you about. Mario, this is my mom."

"Claire Parker," the woman said, shaking Mario's hand. "I see you 'survived' one night at the old 'haunted house'."

"Uhh, do you really think it's haunted, Mrs. Parker?" Mario asked, nervously.

"No, of course not," Claire said. "I'm just teasing Aimee, since she believes it's haunted. But really, it isn't."

"I beg to differ with you on that one, Mother," Aimee said. "Mario saw the animatronics come to life, too!"

"The mind plays funny tricks on you at times late at night," Claire said. "I have to go, or I'll be late for work."

And with that, Claire left. Aimee heaved a sigh.

"Not even my own _mother_ believes me!" she shouted.

"Don't worry about it, Aimee," Princess Toadstool said, putting her hand on the thirteen-year-old's shoulder. "Even though I haven't seen it, I believe you. Mario wouldn't lie about something like this."

"That's for sure," Mario said.

"You'd think there'd be some video footage," Toad said. "You said the place had security cameras, didn't you, Mario?"

"Maybe if you show Mr. Parker and Mr. Daniels the security footage . . . ." Luigi started.

"Unfortunately, that's not an option," Aimee interrupted. "Every time the power goes out, the security footage gets wiped out, and there's no way to recover it."

"Doesn't Mr. Daniels try to have it fixed?" the Princess asked.

"Nope," Aimee said. "And according to a lot of the other night watchmen I talked to, the power goes out almost every night, and Mr. Daniels refuses to have anything upgraded!"

"That's a little suspicious," Luigi said.

"What are you going to do about it, Mario?" Toad asked.

"I'm going back there tonight and continue my investigation," Mario said.

"Are you nuts?!" Luigi shouted. "After what happened last night?!"

"Look, there's a lot going on down there, and I haven't figured out exactly what, yet," Mario said. "Those animatronic robots came to life, and they're not supposed to! The guy on the tape said they move because it was a glitch in the system, but I don't think so. Look at the writing on the back of this photo. And that little arcade game I played . . . . the kids' names were Kyle and Keith. Didn't you say those were the names of the two boys in this photo, Aimee?"

"Yeah," Aimee said.

"But it could be a coincidence," Luigi said. "Please, Mario, don't do this."

"I have to, Luigi," Mario said. "This mystery is starting to intrigue me. But don't worry, little bro. I promise, I'll be careful."

Mario patted his brother's shoulder reassuringly. Then he stifled a yawn.

"But for right now," he said, "I'm gonna go get some sleep!"

Aimee nodded, and led Mario to one of the bedrooms. Luigi still wasn't so sure that this was a good idea. He picked up the photo his brother had found and studied it. Then he shuddered, and put it down.

"Sheesh!" he shouted. "He sure wasn't any less creepy six years ago than he is now!"

"Who is?" Ellen asked, coming into the kitchen.

"Mr. Daniels," Luigi explained. "He really gives me the creeps!"

"Yeah, me too," Ellen said. "But we're real glad you're here, Mr. Luigi."

"Oh yeah? Why's that?"

"If you, and Toad, and the princess stay here, Aimee and I don't hafta go to Kittykins'. Mommy and Daddy don't like letting us stay home by ourselves, which is why we go to Kittykins' a lot when school's out. Aimee really doesn't like it there."

"Because it's haunted, huh?"

"Yeah. That, and she doesn't like Mr. Daniels. I don't, either. He's really creepy, but he _is_ a super nice guy, though."

"How do you mean?"

"He gives us free tokens for the arcade games all the time, and free pizza, and he lets us have stuff from the prize counter for free, too. He also said Aimee and I could go in and watch the show if we wanted to, but Aimee never wants to, and she doesn't let me go in by myself."

"When he says you could go in, does he mean by yourselves?"

"Yeah."

"And he doesn't let any of the other kids go in by themselves?"

"No. But I think he said we could go in and see the show by myself 'cause he and my daddy are best friends. And that's also why we get free tokens and stuff."

Luigi just nodded. He glanced at Toad and Princess Toadstool, and they could tell what he was thinking. They didn't say anything until Ellen left the room.

"I _really _don't like the sound of that story," Luigi said. "Why would he allow Aimee and Ellen to go see the show by themselves, when no other kid under fourteen can go in there?"

"I don't know," Toad said. "Maybe it _is_ because Mr. Daniels and Mr. Parker are good friends. Just because a guy is creepy doesn't mean he's evil."

"I know," Luigi said. "But . . . . this guy gives me the mega creeps, and something just doesn't sit right with me on this."

"I think you're right, Luigi," the princess said. "Maybe we should look into this a little more."

"Let's go get Aimee's scrapbook," Toad said. "See if we can dig up a little more information."

Luigi and Princess Toadstool agreed. They figured Mario could use any help he could get.


	4. Night 2

The next night, Mario walked into Kittykins', like he did the night before. Everyone was on the stage as usual.

"At ease, troops," he said, giving the animatronics a nervous salute. "Heh, heh, heh . . . ."

Mario nervously cleared his throat, and walked to the back office. He looked around the desk, and found another audio tape there. He popped it into the tape player and pushed the button.

"Hey there!" the voice said. "I see you survived your first night. Congratulations! However, I should warn you, things are gonna get a little crazy from this point on."

"Like they're not crazy now?" Mario asked, rolling his eyes.

"I forgot to mention," the voice on the tape said. "You may have noticed by now that the girl characters don't move much. Piggy Sue actually doesn't move much at all, and Kittykins kind of doesn't move unless the power goes out for some reason I can't fathom. But what can ya do, right?"

"Yeah, right," Mario said, as if the voice on the tape could answer him directly.

"Listen, the camera monitor is dead, unfortunately," the voice on the tape said. "But we keep the batteries for it in the kitchen. Just be careful when you go get them, okay? Have a good night!"

Mario stopped the tape player and sighed. He was not looking forward to leaving his office, but he knew he couldn't check up on the animatronics without the monitor. He left the office carefully, and walked toward the kitchen. As he passed the stage, he noticed the only animatronics there were Kittykins and Piggy Sue.

"Of course, they're gone again," he said. "Why doesn't this surprise me? Oh well. Maybe I can make it to the kitchen without running into one of them."

Mario took a deep breath, and walked toward the kitchen. He immediately stopped in his tracks when he saw Big Chicken standing in front of the curtained area.

"Ah ha!" he shouted. "I found yoooouuuu! I'm just egg-static to see you!"

"Mama mia!" Mario shouted, nervously. "I'd better get to the kitchen, and fast!"

Mario took off running for the kitchen door, with Big Chicken hot on his heels. Once he was inside, he slammed the door shut, and locked it. But Big Chicken began banging on it.

"Open the door!" he shouted. "Come on outta there! I just wanna play!"

"He's gonna break the door down any minute," Mario said. "I gotta find a place to hide!"

Mario looked around the room quickly. There were three places he could hide: the pizza oven, the refrigerator, or under the sink.

"If I hide in the oven, I might end up cooking myself," he said. "And if I hide in the refrigerator, there's a chance I could wind up not being able to open the door again, and I might run out of air. I guess the best place to hide is under the sink!"

Immediately, Mario dove under the sink, and not a moment too soon. The minute he was hidden, the door burst open.

"I know you're in here!" Big Chicken called out. "You can't fool me! The yolk's gonna be on you once I find you!"

Mario remained still and silent, while the giant chicken looked around the kitchen. Finally, he saw the giant feet of the chicken suit head through the kitchen door, and it closed he behind him.

"Whew!" Mario breathed. "About time he left."

Mario crawled out from under the sink, grabbed the batteries for the monitor, and ran back to the office as fast as he could, in case he saw another killer animatronic. Once he reached the office, he tried to put the batteries into the monitor, but found out he didn't have enough.

"Are you kidding me?!" he shouted. "These were the only batteries I could find! Maybe there's some in the supply closet outside of the office. One way to find out."

Mario left the office and walked over to the supply closet adjacent to it. He turned on the light, and began looking around. He was able to find some batteries, but when he turned around, he saw Mervin Griffin standing in front of the door, blocking the way.

"Going somewhere, chubby?" he asked. His voice was similar to that of W. C. Fields.

"Actually, I was just leaving!" Mario shouted.

"I don't think so. Now is the time for a little fun, my fat little friend."

"Hey, who're you calling fat?!"

Mario then realized now was not the time to take offense at Mervin's name calling. He had to find something to use to get out of there. He spotted a bottle of cleaner on the floor, grabbed it, and sprayed it into Mervin's face.

"AAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Mervin screamed, and covered his eyes with his paws. "MY EYES! MY EYES!"

"I'm outta here!" Mario shouted, and took off running as fast as he could. Luckily, it wasn't too far to the office. The minute he was inside, he slammed the door shut. Then he heard someone pounding on the door outside.

"Little pig, little pig, let me come in!" Mervin shouted.

"Wrong story, fella!" Mario shouted.

"Come on, now, my little chubby-bubby," Mervin said. "Open this door right now!"

"Aw, go soak your head!"

Mervin growled, and stormed off. It was obvious he wasn't going to get into the office. Mario heaved a sigh of relief, and put the batteries into the monitor. Then he turned on the computer, and began checking the rooms. Everything looked normal, except the "Out of Order" sign on the curtained area was gone, the curtain was open, and inside there was an arcade cabinet.

"Hmm," he said. "Better check that out."

Mario left the office, and walked over to the curtained area. Behind the curtain was a room decorated to look like a weird forest. There was a sign there that read "Fun-derland Forest." Another sign read "Magic Show with Chester the Cheshire Cat." On the stage was the costume of a purple cat, with pink and blue stripes. He was wearing a black cape with red lining, a black top hat, and an extremely creepy grin.

"Weird," he said. "How come Mr. Parker didn't tell me about this place? Or about this Chester character? Probably because he's so creepy looking. _Eeeesh_!"

Mario found the arcade game, and played it.

"I didn't mean it," a voice in the game said. "I didn't know this would happen. I'm sorry!"

The picture on the screen appeared, showing four people in a bedroom. One was the little boy from the previous game, laying in a bed. It appeared that part of his face was missing, and his brain was exposed. The other people in the room were an adult woman, a little girl, and an older boy. The woman and the little girl were crying. The older boy left the room, and entered another one. When he entered the other room, there was a Kittykins costume in the background, as well as an empty costume for Rudy Rat. Another character came into the room shortly afterwards.

"Well, Keith," he said, "I hope you're proud of yourself. You're nothing but a monster. He was begging for mercy, he was crying his eyes out, and what did you do?"

"I know, I know!" Keith shouted. "But it was just an accident! I didn't know it was going to happen! I know I messed up big time, Dad, but you don't have to keep telling me over and over!"

"Kyle is in a coma because of you! He could die any minute, and the only thing he'll remember is his big brother killing him!"

"I know! I get it, okay?! I know I'm a monster! I know I messed up! You think telling me this is gonna make things any better?!"

"You're a disappointment to me, Keith. You might as well get out. And when I say get out, I mean get out of this life!"

The screen went black, and the next thing Mario heard was the sound of a knife slicing something, a scream, and then Keith's father began speaking again.

"You deserve this, Keith," he said. "Don't forget that. I'm going to put Kyle out of his misery soon. But first, I have to take care of you. If you want to be a monster, then be a monster!"

Mario heard some more sound effects before the screen faded back to a picture. Keith was gone, and the Rudy costume had a red blob underneath it. Then the father went up the stairs, and the screen faded to black.

"Mama mia . . . . ." Mario said, nervously. "Why would he do something like that? Why would a father _kill_ his own son?"

Mario suddenly got the feeling he was being watched, and turned around. There he saw Rudy standing behind him.

"You shouldn't be here," the giant rat said. "After what you've done to me!"

"Me done to you?" Mario asked. "But . . . . but I haven't done anything to you!"

"LIAR! You'll pay for what you've done to me, as well as my little brother!"

"I gotta get outta here!"

Mario took off like a shot, with Rudy right behind him. He barely made it into the office by the skin of his teeth, and slammed the door shut. Rudy began pounding on the door.

"Open this door!" he demanded. "You can't stay in there forever!"

"Yes I can!" Mario shouted.

"_Bah_!" Rudy shouted, and stormed away. Mario heaved a sigh of relief.

"That was a close one," he said. "I wonder what he meant by him and his brother, though? There's gotta be more information around here somewhere."

Mario started to leave the office, but before he could, the power went off, just like it did the night before.

"Oh no, not again!" he moaned.

Mario dove underneath the desk, just as he heard the tones of Kittykins' version of the "Toreador" song. No way he was coming out until six.


	5. The Bite of 83

As Mario was hiding, he heard a knock on the top of his desk. At first, he thought it was Kittykins, or one of her friends, so he stayed put. However, the knocking continued.

"Mario, I know you're under there," a voice said. "I can see you. Come on out. Kevin needs to get to the desk."

Mario whimpered, and slowly crawled out from under the desk, just in case it was one of the animatronics. He heaved a sigh of relief when he saw it was Mr. Daniels and Kevin.

"What are you doing under there, anyway?" Mr. Daniels asked. "Hiding from Kittykins?"

"Uhh . . . ." Mario said, nervously. "N-no, I . . . . I think I dropped something. Heh, heh, heh. Listen, uhhh, I gotta go get some sleep! See you later!"

And with that, Mario raced out of the restaurant as fast as he could. Immediately, he returned to the Parkers' home the minute he got out of the restaurant. Once he got there, he told his friends about what happened.

"There was this new one there tonight," he said. "It didn't move or anything, though. I think it was some kind of cat . . . . like the one in _Alice in Wonderland_."

"You mean a Cheshire cat?" Princess Toadstool asked.

"Yeah, that's it," Mario said.

"A Cheshire cat?" Aimee asked. "You mean you saw Chester?"

"Who's Chester?" Princess Toadstool asked.

"Another Kittykins character," Aimee explained. "He used to put on a magic show in this area called Fun-derland Forest. He broke down sometime during nineteen eighty-three. I don't know why Mr. Daniels keeps the thing around. He can't keep that Out of Order sign up forever!"

"He's probably just lazy," Toad said.

"Unfortunately, we weren't able to find out anything new," Princess Toadstool said.

"Yeah, just the same old stuff that's in Aimee's scrapbook," Luigi said. "Three kids gone, several security officers missing . . . . and unfortunately, nothing about that Daniels creep. I don't know what it is about him, but even just _mentioning _him sends shivers up my spine! _Brrrrrr_!"

"To be completely honest," Aimee said, "Mom and Dad has said Mr. Daniels hasn't been the same since nineteen eighty-three. Not after . . . ."

"After what?" Toad asked.

"After . . . . an accident . . . ." Aimee said, and she began twirling her hair.

"What kind of accident?" Mario asked.

"Well . . . . ummmm . . . . ." Aimee said, nervously.

"The Bite of Eighty-Three," Ellen said.

"What's the Bite of Eighty-Three?" Toad asked.

"Some kid died after he got his head bitten off by the Kittykins robot," Ellen said.

"How do you even know about that?" Aimee asked.

"It's in your scrapbook," Ellen said, shrugging.

"But that article only mentioned the kid got his skull crushed," Toad said.

"Wait a minute!" Luigi shouted. "The Kittykins robot _bit_ some kid's head off?!"

"Not really," Ellen said. "It bit off his frontal lobe. Whatever _that_ is!"

"It's part of the brain," Mario said. Then he realized what he had just said. "Whoa, hold the spaghetti here for a minute! Are you trying to tell us that the Kittykins animatronic bit a piece out of a kid's brain?!"

"Holy macaroni . . . ." Luigi moaned, looking a little pale. He felt like he was going to throw up.

"But it was just an accident," Aimee continued. "After that, Mr. and Mrs. Daniels got divorced, and Mrs. Daniels and Jessica moved away."

"What about Kyle and Keith?" Princess Toadstool asked. "Did they stay with their dad?"

"Ellen, go watch _Sesame Street_," Aimee said, suddenly.

"I'm too _old_ to watch _Sesame Street_!" Ellen protested.

"Then go watch some other TV show!" Aimee shouted.

"There's nothing on!" Ellein argued.

"Then go watch your _Care Bears_ tape!" Aimee shouted, starting to get frustrated with her little sister.

"Fine," Ellen grumbled.

"And do it in the basement!" Aimee shouted.

"All right, already!" Ellen shouted. Then she began to mutter under her breath. "Geez, they always tell me to go watch TV whenever they're gonna start to talk about something good!"

"Mom and Dad don't like talking about this while Ellen's around," Aimee said once Ellen was gone. "Actually, I'm also not crazy about her knowing about the bite incident."

"What happened, anyway?" Toad asked. "Other than that kid getting a piece of his brain bitten off, that is."

"Well, it was Kyle Daniels that was the victim of the Bite of Eighty-Three," Aimee explained. "It happened on his ninth birthday. Mom and Ellen weren't there. Ellen was a year old, and too young for Kittykins'. Dad and I were there, though. Mr. and Mrs. Daniels threw the party at Kittykins', and that meant Keith and Jessica had to be there, so Jessica invited me to the party. Anyway, Keith and some of his friends played this really mean trick on Kyle. They picked him up, and held him up to the Kittykins animatronic's mouth, and it closed on Kyle's head. I'll never forget it, it was so gross! Blood everywhere!"

"Eeuuwww . . . ." Toad said, grimacing.

"After that, Keith disappeared, and then Mr. and Mrs. Daniels split up," Aimee said. "Nobody knows what happened to Keith."

"Uhh . . ." Mario said, nervously. "Are . . . are you sure Mrs. Daniels and Jessica moved?"

"Positive," Aimee said. "I was with them the day they left."

"Okay," Mario said, heaving a sigh of relief.

"Why do you ask that, Mario?" Princess Toadstool asked.

"It has something to do with the arcade game I found," Mario said, and he told the others about what he found.

"Holy ravioli!" Luigi shouted. "You think Mr. Daniels actually _killed_ his kids?!"

"I'm not really sure," Mario said. "I mean, the bite incident could have been an accident, sure, but the fact that the kids in the video games are named Kyle and Keith, and Mr. Daniels had two kids named Kyle and Keith, and Kyle had his frontal lobe bitten off, like the kid in the video game, and it was obvious that the father in the video game killed the older kid in the video game . . . . and the fact that Keith just seemed to have disappeared . . . ."

"Not to mention the fact that three other kids have gone missing and were last seen at Kittykins'," Toad said. "That would also explain why Mr. Daniels is so creepy."

"I'm not so sure," Princess Toadstool said. "It could be a coincidence. Besides, why wasn't he ever convicted?"

"Probably not enough evidence," Mario said.

"But just because a person is creepy doesn't mean he's a murderer," the princess pointed out.

"Mario, please," Luigi said. "_Please_ don't go there again!"

"I _have_ to, Luigi," Mario said. "I'm positive Mr. Daniels is the one behind Keith's disappearance. And he might have killed Kyle, too. What else would it mean to put someone out of their misery? I need to get more evidence to prove that he's guilty!"

"Mario, _please_!" Luigi begged. "Don't do it! What if those security guards were killed because they found evidence that Mr. Daniels was responsible for the disappearance of those kids? What if those kids were murdered? Please don't go!"

"Don't worry, Luigi! I'll be fine! I can take care of myself! You know that! I'm Super Mario!"

"But . . . . but there aren't any Fire Flowers or Starmen around here! You _can't_ become Super Mario without them!"

"I'll improvise, bro. I improvised last night when ol' Merv caught me in the supply closet. Besides, if Mr. Daniels has gotten away with murder for six years, who's to say he's not gonna do it again? Especially if there are kids involved?"

"Well . . . . okay, I guess. Just . . . . just promise me you'll be careful? Please?"

"All right. I promise, Luigi, I'll be extra, extra, _extra_ careful."

Mario gave his brother a reassuring pat on the shoulder, and then walked to a bedroom in order to get some sleep. Unfortunately, Luigi wasn't very reassured.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," he said.


	6. Night 3

Mario arrived at Kittykins' at midnight, as per usual. He noticed all of the animatronics were on the stage, except for Piggy Sue. Mario found that a little strange, considering the voice on the tape said that Piggy Sue didn't move much.

"Uh oh . . . ." Mario said, nervously. "What if she's at the office? I'd better check!"

Immediately Mario went to the office, carefully looking around for signs of Piggy Sue. Thankfully, she wasn't in the office. However, there was a tape sitting on the desk. Mario put it into the tape player and listened.

"Hello there," the voice said. "Listen, uhh, we had an incident during one of the performances during the day . . . . uhhh, the characters were all doing their little performances, and this . . . . red liquid came spurting out of Piggy Sue. A lot of the little kids were pretty scared, but most of the adults there figured a bunch of teenagers put ketchup in the suits, and it caused the spring locks to go off. The spring locks are very sensitive, you know."

"No, I didn't know," Mario said. "Guess I know now, huh?"

"Anyway," the voice continued, "Piggy Sue's in the backroom right now, and she needs to be repaired. Kevin told me to tell you to go in the back and tried to get her fixed up before tomorrow. Though for some reason, Mr. Daniels was against it. Don't know why. But, uhh, Mr. Daniels relented 'cause Kevin pointed out that we don't have a spare Piggy Sue suit to put on an endoskeleton. All you gotta do is take out what's in the suit. You should be good to go after that. Have a good night!"

"Take out what's in the suit, huh?" Mario said. "That shouldn't be too hard. But before I go, I'd better check the cameras."

Mario turned on the monitor, and began to look around the restaurant. He saw Rudy in one hallway, and it looked like he was about to come toward the office.

"Uh oh!" Mario shouted. "Here comes Rudy! Wait a minute, maybe if I leave the camera on him, he'll think I'm watching him. And I know where the spare batteries are for the monitor in case it dies."

Mario left the camera on Rudy, and left the office to make the repairs on Piggy Sue, though he was getting an icky feeling in the pit of his stomach about it. He reached the back room, and found the "ketchup"-covered Piggy Sue on the table.

"I don't know how in the world they expect me to take care of this thing," he said. "I'm a plumber, not a technical engineer! Let's see, where do I start here?"

Mario found a zipper on the back of the suit, and pulled it. Then he pulled open the back of the suit, and something spilled out of it. Mario jumped back, not quite sure what it was. At first, he thought it might have been some miscellaneous parts, but upon further inspection, he realized it was a child's rotting corpse. Mario let out a scream, and raced out of the back room as fast as he could, and raced into the bathroom.

"Mama mia!" he shouted. "I don't know what I was expecting to find in there, but it sure wasn't a dead body! Oooohhhh, I think I'm gonna throw up!"

But before Mario could do anything more (including throwing up), he heard the restroom door open. Immediately, the red-clad plumber raced into a stall, and locked the door. From underneath the stall door, he saw a pair of chicken feet.

"I know you're in here!" Big Chicken's voice shouted. "I heard ya comin' in! Now come out!"

_I'd better stay here,_ Mario thought. _But if I do that, he might find me. I've got to think of something._

Mario thought it over, and spotted a plunger next to the toilet. That gave him an idea.

_If I can trip Big Chicken,_ he thought, _I may be able to make a run for it. It might take him awhile to get back up again. Those animatronic outfits seem awfully bulky."_

Slowly, Mario opened the stall door, just as Big Chicken approached it. He threw the plunger in the giant rooster's face.

"Hey!" Big Chicken shouted. "Get this thing off me!"

"Sure, paisano!" Mario shouted, and he yanked the plunger off as fast as he could. The momentum caused Big Chicken to stumble forward, and fall face first into the toilet. Mario then flushed the toilet, and ran.

"I hated to do that," he said. "It'll clog the pipes something fierce, but a plumber's gotta do what a plumber's gotta do!"

Mario then raced to the office, and slammed the door shut, so none of the other animatronics could get in. Of course, he figured pulling Big Chicken out of the toilet would keep them busy, anyway. The minute he stepped into the office, he found another arcade cabinet.

"Another one," he said. "How did it get here? Oh well. Let's see what happens this time."

Mario started the game, and watched as another part of the story unfolded. In this one, he saw the Chester the Cheshire Cat animatronic approach a boy in the main dining room.

"Hi there!" Chester said, in an overly cheery voice. "I'm Chester the Cheshire Cat! Wanna come with me? If you do, you'll have nothing but fun, cake, ice cream, candy, and cookies!"

"Oh boy!" the kid cheered.

The kid immediately began following Chester, and the scene faded into another part of the dining room. There, Chester approached another kid.

"Hi there, little girl!" he shouted. "I'm Chester the Cheshire Cat! Wanna come play with me? And we'll get Kittykins and all her friends to come join us!"

"Yay!" the little girl cheered. "I always wanted to meet Kittykins and Piggy Sue!"

"Oh you will," Chester said. "Come on, let's go!"

The little girl joined the group, and followed Chester into what looked like the arcade. There was another kid there.

"Hiya, little guy!" Chester said. "I'm Chester the Cheshire Cat! Come with me, and you can have all the fun you want!"

"Will there be music there?" the kid asked. "I love music!"

"Of course, little buddy!" Chester shouted. "All the music you want!"

"Okay!" the kid said, and followed Chester off screen.

The screen became black then, but Mario could still hear the voices. He heard a door open and then close, and then there was a brief moment of silence.

"Uhhh . . . . M-mister Cheshire Cat?" the voice of the first boy asked. "Wh-what's going on? Why does Rudy Rat look like he's bleeding?"

"He's not really bleeding," the voice of the little girl said. "Is he?"

"Oh yes," Chester's voice said. But then it went from overly cheery to extremely ominous. "He is."

The next thing Mario heard was the sound of maniacal laughter, the three children screaming, and what sounded like knife slicing, and then silence. The picture faded in to what looked like the suits for Big Chicken, Mervin Griffin, and Piggy Sue, each with a circle of red underneath them. A sinister sounding chuckle was heard before the screen faded out entirely.

"Oh no . . . ." Mario said. "Those missing kids from the newspaper clippings in Aimee's scrapbook . . . . that must be them! No wonder the bodies were never found! They've been stuffed inside the animatronics! I'd better get outta here!"

Mario raced out of the office and toward the exit, but halfway there, he noticed the power went out again.

"You _can't_ be serious!" he shouted. "Sheesh, Mr. Parker was right! This place _does_ run on double A batteries! But this is no time for stopping! I gotta get outta here!"

Mario turned toward the exit and ran as fast as he could, but unfortunately, he didn't quite make it. Just as he was about to open the door, Kittykins appeared in front of him.

"Yikes!" Mario shouted, and ran in another direction, but he was blocked by Big Chicken. He tried to go the opposite way, but found himself blocked by Mervin. Another way out was blocked by Rudy, and Piggy Sue was blocked another opening.

"Uh ohhhhh . . . . . ." Mario said, nervously, when he realized he was surrounded.

"Tee hee!" Kittykins laughed, except it didn't sound high pitched and cheerful like it usually did. This time, it sounded dark, deep, and ominous.


	7. Mario is Missing

Luigi sat in the Parkers' living room, staring out the window. He didn't sleep a wink the night before. He was too worried about Mario.

"I knew Mario shouldn't have gone back there," he said, as he started pacing back and forth. "Something's happened, I just know it!"

"Calm down, Luigi!" Toad shouted. "Mario's only five minutes late! You're too uptight!"

"I can't help it!" Luigi shouted. "That place makes me really nervous!"

"He's probably just at Kittykins' talking to Kevin, or Charlie," Claire said, picking up her briefcase. "There's nothing to worry about."

"Yeah, Luigi, Mario's a big boy now," Toad said. "He can take care of himself! So wouldja stop pacing, already?!"

"Yeah, if you keep it up, you're going to wear a hole in the carpet," Aimee said. "And possibly the floor!"

"Maybe Mario found out something about the hauntings and what's causing it and telling Daddy about how Mr. Daniels is such a big creep and that he killed those three kids, as well as his own kids!" Ellen shouted.

"What?" Claire asked, giving her younger daughter a weird look.

"I thought you were downstairs when we were talking about that!" Aimee shouted.

"I was eavesdropping," Ellen said, shrugging.

"If I didn't have to leave for work, I'd give both of you girls a severe talking to right here and now," Claire said. "So I'll save it for when I get home tonight."

"Yes, Mother," the girls said in unison.

"Don't worry about it, Luigi," Claire said, before she left. "I'm sure Mario is just fine."

"I wish I were as sure as you were, Mrs. Parker," Luigi said.

"Come on, Luigi," Aimee said, taking Luigi's hand. "You need something to get your mind off of this. We've got a shower in the basement bathroom that's been dripping a lot. Why don't you take a look at it?"

"Okay, I guess . . . ." Luigi said, but he was too worried about his brother to even think about plumbing.

Aimee and Luigi were halfway down the basement stairs when they heard the front door open. Immediately, Luigi ran back up the stairs, through the kitchen, and into the living room.

"Mario!" he shouted. "Mario, I'm so glad you're . . . . oh. It's only you, Mr. Parker."

"Well, thanks a lot," Kevin said.

"I'm sorry," Luigi said. "I thought you were Mario."

"Daddy?" Aimee asked, coming into the room. "What are you doing home?"

"Charlie closed Kittykins' for maintenance work today," Kevin said, shrugging. "He gave the staff the day off. There was an incident with the Piggy Sue animatronic yesterday afternoon. We left a message for Mario to clean it, but we don't know if he got it."

"How come?" Toad asked.

"He wasn't there when Charlie and I got there this morning," Kevin said.

"He wasn't there?" Luigi asked. "What do you mean he wasn't there?!"

"I mean he wasn't there," Kevin said. "My guess is he took off like all the other security guards. He didn't last long, I'll tell you that. Most people at least finish out the Monday through Friday shift."

"I think I'm gonna call and see if he knows where Mario is," Luigi said. "What's the number?"

Kevin gave Luigi the phone number, and the green-clad plumber immediately dialed the phone.

"Hello, Mr. Daniels?" he asked. "This is Luigi Mario. Yeah, I'm Mario's brother. Listen, I'm calling to find out if you knew where he was. No, he's not here. You haven't seen him since yesterday, either, huh? Okay. Well, if you do see him, let him know we're really worried about him, okay? Yeah, thanks. Bye."

Luigi sighed, and he hung up the phone.

"Don't worry, Luigi," Kevin said. "He'll show up sooner or later."

"He probably just got so scared of the haunted animatronics that he ran someplace and forgot to call," Ellen said.

"That's enough, Ellen," Kevin said, in a warning tone.

"That's just it," Luigi said. "Mario _wouldn't_ forget to call! He wouldn't make me worry about him like this! He'd never do something like that to me! Something's happened to him, I know it has! I just know he's in trouble!"

"You think Kittykins got him?" Ellen asked. "Just like she got all the other night guards?"

"Ellen!" Kevin shouted.

"Well, she could have!" Ellen argued. "Aimee said that's what happened to Chuck Meiner!"

"Ellen Marie . . . ." Kevin said, obviously getting a little miffed.

"Aimee said Kittykins just dragged him off into the night, and nobody ever saw or heard from him ever again!" Ellen shouted. "That creepy Mr. Daniels probably programmed Kittykins and the others to kill people, and then chop them up into little pieces and hide them in the walls of the pizza parlor! That's why it smells so funky down there!"

"Ch-ch-chop them up and . . . . h-h-hide them in the walls?" Luigi asked, shaking. Then his eyes rolled back into their sockets, and he fell to the floor in a dead faint.

"Luigi!" Princess Toadstool asked, as she and Toad ran to him to make sure he was okay.

"Ellen Marie Parker, that's enough!" Kevin shouted. "I have had it up to here with these haunted Kittykins stories! Go to your room!"

"But _Dad_dy . . . ." Ellen started.

"Don't 'but Daddy' me, young lady!" Kevin shouted. "Go!"

Ellen gave her father a dirty look, then stomped off, grumbling under her breath. Kevin then turned to Aimee, and gave her a look as well.

"I want you in your room, too, Aimee," he said.

"_Me_?!" Aimee shouted, incredulously. "What did _I_ do?!"

"You were the one who started this whole thing!" Kevin shouted. "You told your sister these stories, didn't you?"

"But Daddy, it's true!" Aimee shouted. "I saw the surveillance footage! Kittykins _did_ drag Chuck Meiner off into the night! And Mr. Daniels _is_ a huge creep! It wouldn't surprise me if he _was_ a murderer!"

"I've had just about enough of this," Kevin groaned, massaging his forehead. "Charlie Daniels has been nothing but nice to you since the day you were born, and here you are, accusing him of being a murderer!"

"But Mario's got proof of it! He said there were these arcade games that showed two kids named Kyle and Keith, and one of the games talked about the Bite of Eighty-Three, and in that game, the father _killed _Keith! And you _know_ Mr. Daniels's sons were named Kyle and Keith, and Kyle Daniels died after the Bite of Eighty-Three, and Keith Daniels 'mysteriously disappeared' after that! It's been six years, and he still hasn't been found! And do you know why? It's because Mr. Daniels _killed_ him and hid the body somewhere!"

"Aimee Elizabeth Parker, that's _enough_! I don't want to hear any more of this nonsense! You and your sister are both grounded for the next month! Now go to your room!"

Aimee let out a cross between a growl and scream, and stormed off to her bedroom, slamming the door once she got inside. Kevin heaved a sigh, and walked over to Toad and Princess Toadstool, who were still trying to revive Luigi.

"I'm sorry you had to see that," Kevin said. "I normally don't lose my temper in front of company, but my daughters are seriously wearing my last nerve thin over this whole Kittykins debacle."

"Yeah, well . . . ." Toad said. He wasn't sure what to say after that, considering he was siding with Aimee on the issue.

"Is Luigi all right?" Kevin asked.

"Yeah, he'll be fine," Toad said. "He does this sort of thing all the time."

"I think it was caused by the shock of what Ellen had said as well as lack of sleep," Princess Toadstool explained. "He was up all night worrying about Mario. As a matter of fact, I'm starting to get worried, myself. He should have been back by now, or at least tried to call us."

"I wouldn't worry," Kevin said. "I'm sure wherever he is, he's fine. He probably can't get to a phone or something."

Princess Toadstool and Toad looked at each other. They weren't sure they believed Kevin.

Hours later, Luigi woke up, screaming. He looked around, breathing heavily, and found he was in the Parkers' guest bedroom. Almost immediately, Toad and Princess Toadstool ran into the room.

"Luigi, are you all right?" the princess asked.

"What's all the screaming about?" Toad asked.

"Nothing," Luigi said. "Just . . . . just a nightmare. Is Mario back yet?"

"No," Princess Toadstool said. "And I'm worried. You don't really think something happened to him, do you?"

"I really do," Luigi said.

"Then there's only one thing we can do," Toad said. "We have to go down to Kittykins' Pizza Palace and find out what's going on!"

"We won't be able to get in," Princess Toadstool said. "It's closed, and I doubt Mr. Daniels will let us in, anyway."

"Then we'll sneak in," Toad said.

"I don't know if that's such a good idea," Aimee said, coming to the door. "It could be dangerous."

"We'll just have to take our chances," Princess Toadstool said.

"Ohhhhhh no!" Luigi shouted. "Nothing doing! Count me out! There's absolutely _no way_ I'm going in there!"

"Come on, Luigi!" Toad shouted. "What's the big deal?"

"I'm not going anywhere where there's even the remotest chance of haunted animatronics!" Luigi shouted. "No way, no how! Even if they aren't haunted, I'm not going anywhere near robotic characters!"

"Why not?" Toad asked. "Come on, Luigi, you've been against this ever since we got here! What's the matter with you, anyway?"

"Well . . . ." Luigi started. Then he shook his head. "No, I can't tell you. I won't tell you! I just can't do this, that's all!"

"Does it have to do with the story Mario was going to tell us?" Princess Toadstool asked. "When you were five years old?"

Luigi turned away, and remained silent. Aimee walked into the room, sat down next to the green-clad plumber, and put her hand on his shoulder.

"You're afraid of animatronics, aren't you?" she asked. "I bet you saw an endoskeleton when you were a little kid, didn't you?"

Luigi bit his lower lip, lowered his head, and nodded.

"When I was five years old," he said, "my mother took Mario and me to this pizza parlor in Brooklyn that was a lot like Kittykins', robotic characters and all. I used to love these characters, so I climbed onto the stage they performed on, when nobody was looking, and snuck into a back room, just to see if I could meet them in person. In this back room, I saw all of the animatronic characters without the costumes. I saw them moving their arms and mouths, their eyes were blinking . . . . then there were the shelves full of the character heads. The eyeholes were completely empty! Not to mention characters with wires sticking out of the necks! It was just about the scariest thing I had ever seen in my life! I ran out of that room in tears, and begged to go home, and I vowed never to go back to a place that had robotics again. That nightmare I had when Toad and the princess came in . . . . I was reliving that moment. I have never gotten over that."

"Wow . . . ." Toad said. "No wonder you don't want to go inside Kittykins'! I don't blame you for being afraid! I would be too!"

"Aimee, how did you know?" Princess Toadstool asked.

"My dad helped Mr. Daniels build Kittykins and her friends," Aimee explained. "I was four when I saw my first endoskeleton. I was really freaked out by it, too, but my dad explained how they worked, and how the costumes fit on them, and then I wasn't so scared anymore. I know they can be really freaky, Luigi. Even when they're not haunted."

"Well, freaky or not," Princess Toadstool said, "we've _got _to go into Kittykins' and see what's going on."

"Yeah," Toad said. "Mario might be in huge trouble! You've gotta help us, Luigi! He's your brother, after all!"

"Well . . . ." Luigi said. Then he took a deep breath, and stood up. "All right. I'll do it for Mario. After all, he'd do the same for me."

"I'll go with you," Aimee said.

"I don't think that's a good idea," Princess Toadstool said.

"The princess is right, Aimee," Luigi said. "Like you said, it might be dangerous. Maybe too dangerous for a kid like you."

"And your dad grounded you, remember?" Toad asked.

"I know," Aimee said. "But you guys don't know the restaurant like I do. I've been backstage all the time. I know almost every nook and cranny of the place. Without the official backstage tour, you won't know where you're going, _and_ you won't know where to hide from the animatronics."

"She's got a point," Toad said.

"All right then," Princess Toadstool said. "Tonight at midnight, we're going in!"


	8. Night 4

At midnight, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, Toad, and Aimee approached the doors of Kittykins' Pizza Palace. Luigi was scared out of his gourd, but he knew he had to go in there and find Mario. Aimee had snuck her dad's keys to the place out of the house before they left. Princess Toadstool was carrying a flashlight, just in case the power went out on them. Toad had gone into town and rented a camcorder to document what they were doing.

"I'm surprised nobody ever thought of this before," he said.

"We're going to prove to my dad once and for all that this place _is_ haunted!" Aimee shouted.

"I just hope Mario's okay," Luigi said, nervously.

Aimee unlocked the door, and the foursome walked inside of the restaurant. Luigi looked around, and saw the animatronics on the stage. He got shivers up his spine, and gulped, wondering if they were going to come to life right before his eyes.

"Come on, Luigi," Aimee said, taking the green-clad plumber's hand. "We've got to keep going."

"Yeah," Toad said. "Where should we go first, Ms. Expert?"

"The office," Aimee said. "That's the safest room in the whole restaurant. The animatronics won't follow you inside if the doors are closed."

Aimee led the group to the office. It was practically deserted, except for a wooden crate on the floor, and another audio tape on the desk.

"What's this, Aimee?" Princess Toadstool asked, picking up the tape.

"Oh, they have a guy who leaves messages for the new nightwatchman," Aimee said. "I think he's one of the security guards during the six to midnight shift. I've never met him."

"Well, let's see what he has to say," Luigi said, taking the tape from the princess, putting it the tape player, and pushing the play button.

"Hello, hello!" the voice on the tape said. Luigi noticed he sounded a little nervous this. "Heeeeeyyyy, night four! I knew you could manage it! Hey, uhhh, listen, it's kinda been . . . . a bad night for me, and I may not be around to leave you another message tomorrow, so . . . . I'm kinda glad I was able to record these messages when I did. Listen, uhh, maybe you could . . . . like check the suits in the back room? I'm gonna try to hold out until someone checks. May . . . . maybe it won't be too bad . . . . uhhh . . . . I . . . . I always wondered what was inside the suits, you know . . . . oh no . . . ."

Suddenly, the group heard a music box playing Bizet's "Toreador" song, and Kittykins singing her little tune. Then they heard a screeching sound, and the voice on the tape screaming. Luigi grimaced, immediately pushed the stop button, and looked at the others.

"I _really_ don't like the sound of that!" he shouted. He took the tape out of the player, and stuck it in his pocket. "We'd better bring this to your dad, Aimee. It could be evidence!"

"Right," Aimee said. She opened the desk drawer, and found three other audio tapes. "Better take the other ones, too. Just in case."

"Hey, Aimee," Toad said. "Do the security guards always keep a big, wooden crate in the office?"

"No," Aimee said. "This is the first time I've ever seen that in here."

"Do Not Open," Princess Toadstool said. "Hmmm. Think we should open it?"

"Why not?" Toad said. "That's an open invitation to open it if I ever saw one!"

"I don't know, Toad," Luigi said. "What if someone finds out we opened it?"

"But what if it's evidence that Mr. Daniels is behind this?" Toad asked. "I'm opening it. Aimee, you take the camera and start filming!"

"Okay," Aimee said, taking the camera from Toad, and pushing the record button. "We're rolling!"

Toad opened the box, and took a sealed envelope out of it.

"Looks like a letter," he said. "It's addressed to your dad, and dated October twenty-ninth, nineteen eighty-six."

"That was around the time those three kids went missing," Aimee said. "What does it say, Toad?"

"It says," Toad said, "dear Mr. Parker, I don't have much time, but I need to tell you something. I know you and Mr. Daniels are very close friends, so it may be hard for you to believe this. Mr. Daniels is responsible for the disappearance of those three children, and he is also responsible for the 'disappearance' of his older son. I've left some evidence for you, in case you don't believe me. They're in the form of some arcade games I've been keeping in storage. Sincerely, Fred Cawthon."

"Who's Fred Cawthon?" Princess Toadstool asked.

"He was one of the technical engineers that worked here," Aimee said. "He built some of the video games in the arcade. He was also a super nice guy. Ellen and I liked him a lot. I remember whenever we were in here, and Mr. Daniels was hanging around the arcade, watching all the kids, Mr. Cawthon would come out of the office, and tell him something was wrong backstage, that he needed to look into. He also would let me and Ellen come back to the office with him and my dad whenever Mr. Daniels started talking to us, usually about going into the theater and giving us a 'private viewing' of Kittykins' show after the restaurant closed for the day. Mr. Daniels is _always_ trying to get Ellen and me alone in the theater with him after the place is closed."

"_Eeesh_!" Luigi shuddered. "I don't know why, but that just gave me the creeps!"

"Yeah, I don't like the sound of that, either!" Princess Toadstool shouted.

"So what happened to the dude?" Toad asked.

"I don't know," Aimee shrugged. "He just disappeared, just like most of the night watchmen."

"That's weird," Luigi said. "I wonder why your dad never got his letter?"

"Something tells me Mr. Daniels kept it from him," Princess Toadstool said. "We'd better find that evidence he left."

Aimee looked out the door, cautiously, and then waved to the others to follow her. Slowly, the foursome left the office, and snuck around to the dining area. Once they were there, the stage was empty.

"Holy macaroni!" Luigi shouted. "Th-th-the animatronics are gone!"

"Uh oh," Aimee said. "They're out and about. We've gotta be extra careful now!"

"Let's go into the back room," Princess Toadstool said. "That's what the guy on the tape recorder said to go."

Aimee nodded, and unlocked the back room door. When the quartet got inside, they noticed there was an arcade cabinet in there.

"This looks like the machines Mario told us about," Luigi said.

"Start recording, Aimee," Toad said, jumping up so he could reach the controls of the game. "I want everything we find to be on tape!"

"Right," Aimee said, and she began recording just as Toad pushed the button on the machine.

On the screen was an 8-bit character. He was standing in front of what looked like a desk.

"Hi, Mr. Parker," the character said. "It's me, Fred Cawthon. Thanks for finding the games I made. I know I shouldn't be making games like this, and I should only be programming them for business, like Mr. Daniels said. But this was the only way I could let you know what was going on. I know this is going to surprise you, but I swear I'm telling the truth. Mr. Daniels is a murderer. He murdered his son, Keith, after the Bite of Eighty-Three. And those three children that disappeared? He lured them into the theater and killed them, too. Not only that, but he did horrible, unspeakable things to the little girl before he killed her. Things I'd rather not mention. Please, Mr. Parker, don't let your daughters come in here anymore! He's had his eye on Aimee for quite some time now. I'm afraid he'll do the same to her what he did to that poor little girl he murdered! Not to mention he could do the same to Ellen, too. He was also working on a special project, a new character, a kitten named Babykins. Mr. Daniels designed her to lure more children to the theater to murder them. I designed three other games here that show everything that happened, from the events leading up to the Bite of Eighty-Three to this game you're watching now. This should be enough evidence to put Mr. Daniels away for life. Please be careful, and keep your girls safe."

The screen faded to black. Aimee stopped recording and looked at the others.

"It's obvious Dad never found these games," she said.

"Yeah, otherwise, he wouldn't let you and Ellen come here anymore," Luigi said.

"I highly doubt Mr. Daniels would still own the place, as well," Princess Toadstool said.

"Hey, wait a minute," Luigi said, suddenly. He ran over to the work table, and picked up a plush Kittykins toy.

"This wasn't here when we came in!" he shouted.

"I wonder where it came from?" Toad asked, as Luigi picked it up.

"Tee hee!" the plush giggled. "That tickles!"

"Yipes!" Luigi shouted, jumping nearly ten feet, and dropping the plush.

"Ooof!" the plush Kittykins shouted, once she landed on the floor. "Hey, be careful!"

"It . . . . it's _talking_!" Luigi shouted, nervously.

"I know," Plush Kittykins said. "Don't be afraid. I'm here to help you."

"Better get this on camera, Aimee," Toad said.

Aimee nodded, and lifted the camcorder to her eye, but before she could hit the record button, the power went out.

"Oh no!" Luigi shouted. "Mario said whenever the power went out, Kittykins came after him!"

"The flashlight's out, too!" Princess Toadstool shouted. "I knew I should have put fresh batteries in it before we left!"

"Unfortunately, I can't record anything," Aimee said. "We'll be able to see a little bit once our eyes adjust to the darkness, but we won't be able to see anything when we play back the tape. Dad'll never believe the audio is the voice of a stuffed Kittykins doll!"

"Please don't be scared," Plush Kittykins said. "I want to help you. I promise I won't hurt you. I know where your friend is."

"Mario?" Luigi asked. "You know where my brother is?! Where is he?!"

"I will take you to him," Plush Kittykins said.

"I don't think we should trust this toy," Toad said.

"You must," Plush Kittykins said. "Especially if you want to see Mr. Mario again."

"I don't think we have a choice," Princess Toadstool said.

"I promise, everything will be okay," Plush Kittykins said. "Mr. Green Man, you pick me up again, and I'll show you."

"O-o-okay I g-g-guess," Luigi said, and he carefully picked up the plush cat.

"Okay," Plush Kittykins said. "I'm going to lead you to the secret room now. Just follow my instructions to the letter, and everything will be fine. The animatronics won't get you if you do what I say."

"Hey, Aimee, what's the secret room?" Toad asked.

"Beats me," Aimee said, shrugging. "But maybe we should all hang onto each other, so we don't get lost in the dark.

"Good idea," Princess Toadstool said, and she grabbed Luigi's shoulders. Aimee put one hand on the princess's shoulder (she still had to carry the camcorder), and Toad jumped onto Aimee's shoulders.

"Come on, everybody," Plush Kittykins said. "It's time to go."

"Lead on, Mac-plumber," Toad said to Luigi. "We're right behind ya!"

Luigi gulped, and hesitated for a moment. Then he slowly stepped out of the back room.

"Turn left," Plush Kittykins said. "Then turn right, go straight ahead for ten paces, turn right, and then open the door."

Luigi nodded, and he and the others followed Plush Kittykins' directions to the letter. Once inside the room, Princess Toadstool took out the flashlight, and tried to turn it on again. To her surprise, it turned on.

"That's weird," she said. Then she shined the light around the room, and found she and the others were in Rudy Rat's theater.

"Why did you lead us here?" she asked.

"And where is Mario?" Luigi asked, putting Plush Kittykins down for a moment. "Is he okay?"

"All in good time, my friend," Plush Kittykins said.

"No!" Luigi shouted. "Tell me now! I have to know! I have to know if my brother is all right! Please tell me now! Please, tell me!"

Luigi was on the verge of tears by this point. He was so worried about Mario, he could barely keep himself in control.

"Calm down, Luigi!" Toad shouted. "Getting hysterical won't help!"

"I can't help it!" Luigi shouted. "This place is freaking me out! I'm so scared . . . . Mario's lost in here somewhere, these animatronics could be anywhere, waiting to jump out and get us, I don't know if Mario's safe or not . . . . I can't handle it! I just want my brother back! Is that too much to ask?! I just want Mario!"

Luigi dropped to his knees, covered his eyes with his hands, and began shaking uncontrollably. Plush Kittykins began climbing up Luigi's chest, and rested her head on his shoulder.

"It's all right, Mr. Luigi," she said. "Everything will be okay. I promise. I'm your friend. Come on and give me a big hug. You'll feel better."

Luigi took a deep breath, and gave the plush a hug. Suddenly, he felt someone wrap their arms around him. He tensed for a moment, but then looked up, and saw Aimee hugging him.

"It's okay, Luigi," she said. "I'm scared, too."

"We're all scared," Toad said, patting Luigi's arm. "This place is ten times scarier than anything King Koopa ever came up with, even when he was a vampire or Frankenstein's monster!"

"Everything's going to be okay, Luigi," Princess Toadstool said, also hugging the green-clad plumber. "We'll find Mario. I just know he's okay."

"Thanks, guys," Luigi said. "I think I'm starting to feel a little better now."

"Oh goody," Plush Kittykins said, happily. "Now then, I brought you to Rudy's theater to talk to you first, before we go to the safe room."

"What do you need to talk to us about first?" Princess Toadstool asked.

"See, I'm not what you think I am," Plush Kittykins said. "I'm a plushie Kittykins, sure, but I'm the protector of those who have fallen here. It's not the place of happiness and joy it once was. I can see into the souls of the people who come here. You are all good people."

Plush Kittykins looked around at each of our heroes, and then turned to Aimee.

"Especially you, little girl," she said. "Because you are still a child. I can see you have a little sister, and even though you fight with her, you love her very much, and only want to keep her safe from the Bad Man."

"The Bad Man?" Luigi asked.

"Yes," Plush Kittykins said. "The Bad Man who killed the children. The children whose souls are trapped here. They are trapped in the animatronics. They are unable to rest. They are blind by anger, and they're going insane, from being trapped here for so long. They see every grown up as a threat. They think all grown ups work for the Bad Man. That's why they hunt them out and kill them. They want to kill the Bad Man, too, for revenge."

"I don't think I want to know any more!" Luigi moaned. "Please, just tell us where the secret room is! I _have_ to find Mario!"

"It's behind this wall," Plush Kittykins said, pointing to a wall across the room. "Nobody but the Bad Man, and the animatronics know it's here. Just knock three times, and it will open."

Luigi slowly walked over to the wall, gulped, and knocked three times. Slowly, the wall opened, revealing a hidden room. Inside the room were three arcade cabinets, and a Kittykins suit without it's head. Inside the Kittykins suit was none other than . . . . .

"Mario!" Luigi shouted.

"Luigi!" Mario shouted. "Mama mia, Luigi, am I glad to see you!"

"How the heck did you get inside that Kittykins outfit?" Luigi asked. "Did they stuff you inside that thing?"

"No, Luigi," Mario said, sarcastically. "I found this room by accident, and decided to put on the Kittykins outfit to see how it fit, so I can use it next Halloween."

"Really?" Luigi asked.

"OF COURSE NOT, STUPID!" Mario screamed. "They caught me last night and stuffed me in here! You think I'd put on one of these stupid costumes of my own free will? Sheesh!"

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," Luigi said. "Let's get you outta here, bro."

"No, don't!" Aimee shouted, before Luigi could lay a hand on the suit. "Those suits are loaded with spring locks! They hold back the animatronic parts. You set one off wrong, it causes a chain reaction, and they'll all go off at once. It's the animatronic pieces trying to move back into place. If that happens, they'll shred Mario to ribbons!"

"Yikes!" Toad shouted.

"Yikes is right!" Luigi shouted, backing off immediately.

"So how do we get Mario outta there without iron maiden-ing him?" Toad asked.

"You got any ideas, bro?" Luigi asked.

"If I did, I wouldn't still be in this stupid thing, now would I, Luigi?" Mario asked, sounding a bit perturbed.

"Right, sorry," Luigi said. "Ooohhhh, I'm such a nervous wreck, I can't even think straight!"

"Don't worry, you guys," Aimee said, handing the camcorder to Toad. "Like I said before, my dad helped build these things. Once, he showed me how to put the suit on the endoskeleton safely, and how to safely take it off. I can handle this. Mario, whatever you do, _don't move_!"

Mario stood perfectly still as Aimee slowly studied the costume. She noticed that the spring locks at the neck weren't attached to any mechanical part. That meant if they went off, they would pierce Mario's neck. She knew she had to undo those first. All she hoped for was that Mario wouldn't move. Slowly, she reached into the costume's neck, and maneuvered her hand until she found the trigger. She continued to do this, one spring lock by one, until she managed to get them all unlocked.

"Luigi, come here," she said. "I need your help."

"What do you need me to do?" Luigi asked.

"Help me hold the costume," Aimee said. "It's too heavy for me to do this alone. We're going to open it, and throw it forward. Mario, once we do that, you pull out as fast as you can. On three, Luigi. One . . . . two . . . . three!"

Aimee and Luigi yanked the costume open, and threw it forward as hard as they could. Immediately, Mario pulled himself out of the cat suit. The minute the costume hit the floor, a series of snapping sounds were heard, and the costume began writhing around the floor.

"Yikes!" Toad shouted, jumping into Princess Toadstool's arms. "It's alive!"

"No, it's not alive," Aimee said. "That's just the animatronic parts snapping into place. It'll stop in a minute."

The others watched, and heaved heavy sighs of relief once the costume stopped moving. Almost immediately afterward, Luigi latched onto his brother, and hugged him tightly.

"Mario, you don't know how worried I was about you!" he shouted, practically bursting into tears. "I thought you were gonna wind up like all the others! I was afraid I'd never see you again!"

"I know, Luigi," Mario said, hugging his brother back. "I was afraid I wasn't gonna make it, either. Thank goodness you guys found me!"

"We also found solid proof that Mr. Daniels is behind everything!" Toad said. "And we got it on video, too!"

"Great!" Mario shouted. Then he walked over to the three arcade machines. "Get the footage on video from these, too, Aimee. These are the games I found the past three nights."

"Gotcha," Aimee said, and she began recording as Mario began playing the games.

"Let's get out of here and get back to Aimee's house," Princess Toadstool said. "We've got to show this to her dad right away!"

"Is there a way we can get out of here without being caught by the animatronics?" Mario asked.

"Yeah, I think so," Aimee said. "Follow me, and be careful."

The group followed Aimee out of the secret room, and made their way to the exit as quietly as possible. Thankfully, they were able to make their way to the exit without the animatronics catching them.


	9. Evidence

When the five-some returned to the Parkers' house, they found both Kevin and Claire waiting for them, and they did not look the least bit happy.

"Aimee Elizabeth Parker, you'd better have a good explanation for coming home at this hour, young lady!" Claire shouted.

"Well, kinda," Aimee said. "We went to Kittykins' to find out what happened to Mario, and . . . ."

"I hope this isn't another one of your wild haunted Kittykins stories, Aimee," Kevin sighed. "If it is, you can save it. I'm tired of them, and they are no longer funny!"

"I'm not kidding, Dad!" Aimee shouted.

"She's right, Mr. Parker!" Mario shouted. "The place really _is_ haunted! They caught me the other night, and stuffed me into a Kittykins suit! That's how come I didn't come back until now!"

"Forget it," Claire said. "I don't have time for this. I've got to go to work. But when I get home tonight, Aimee, your father and I are going to have a very long talk about you sneaking out and staying out all night!"

"Oooohh, _Mother_!" Aimee growled, frustratedly.

"Mario!" Ellen shouted, racing down the hall. She flung herself into the red-clad plumber's arms, and gave him the biggest hug she could muster.

"You're okay!" she shouted. "Boy, am I glad to see you!"

"I'm glad to see you, too, kiddo," Mario said, returning the seven-year-old's hug. "Heck, I'm glad to see _any_body!"

"So Kittykins didn't get you and chop you up and hide you in the walls after all!" Ellen shouted.

"Well, you're half right," Mario said. "Kittykins and her friends _did_ get me. She put me in a spring loaded, lethal Kittykins suit. Thank goodness Luigi, the princess, Toad, and your sister found me, or else I was gonna be a goner!"

"Mario, I'll thank you _not_ to fill my daughter's head with such stories," Kevin said. "Aimee's already got her believe her tall tales. The last thing I need is someone else telling her stories as well!"

"Mr. Parker, we're telling you the truth," Princess Toadstool said.

"We even have proof!" Luigi shouted. He took the letter Toad had found out of his pocket, and handed it to Kevin.

"That's why I was out all night," Aimee said. "We knew you'd never believe it, so we finally got smart and brought a video camera down to Kittykins and recorded what was going on!"

Kevin said nothing. He just took the letter out of the envelope and read through it. Once he was finished, he looked up at the others and gave them a confused look.

"Fred never told me about any arcade games in the storage closet," he said. "He never kept the games he was working on there!"

"You mean you _still_ don't believe us?" Aimee asked.

"What, you think Aimee forged the note or something?" Mario asked.

"No, she couldn't have done that," Kevin said. "I know my own daughter's handwriting, and this definitely isn't it. But she could have gotten one of you to write this."

"Oh brother!" Aimee groaned. "I can't be_lieve_ he still doesn't believe it!"

"Well then, let's go to the video tape," Toad said, unloading the camcorder, and handing the tape to Aimee.

Kevin sighed, and followed the group into the den. Aimee loaded the tape into the VCR, and pushed the play button. Then she took the remote control and fast-forwarded the tape to the arcade games. Kevin's jaw practically dropped upon seeing the footage.

"That's not all," Luigi said, pulling the audio tapes the group found out of his pocket. "We found these, as well. Gotta tape player?"

"Here," Ellen said, handing Luigi a brown Fisher Price tape recorder. Luigi loaded the tapes in, one at a time, and pushed the play button. Kevin listened to each tape carefully.

"Well, that's the Piggy Sue incident," Kevin said, once they got to the third tape. "You were supposed to clean that suit, Mario."

"You know what was inside that suit, Mr. Parker?" Mario asked. "A dead body."

"_What_?!" Kevin shouted, jumping to his feet.

"That's right," Mario said. "The dead body of a kid. That wasn't ketchup that was spilling out of the suit. It was blood."

"Ooohhhhhh boy . . . ." Kevin said, running his hand through his hair.

"The Kittykins' characters attack the night watchmen because the souls of those murdered children are trapped inside the animatronic suits," Princess Toadstool explained. "They're convinced all grown ups work for this person called the Bad Man, who only wants to kill other children."

"How do you know that?" Kevin asked.

"What would you say if we told you a plush Kittykins doll told us?" Toad asked.

"Normally, I'd say you were nuts," Kevin said. "But at this point, nothing would surprise me."

"We also think that Mr. Daniels is this 'Bad Man' that the doll told us about," Luigi said. "Seriously, Mr. Parker, Aimee told us he's been trying to get her and Ellen into the theater alone with him. And those 'horrible, unspeakable things' he did to that little girl he killed . . . . well, I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to put two and two together here."

"I think you're right," Kevin said. "I knew Charlie didn't take the death of his son too well, but I never thought he would go off the deep end! Aimee, I'm sorry I didn't believe you about this."

"So what do we do now?" Toad asked.

"Let's call the police!" Mario shouted.

"I don't know if we can," Kevin said. "I'm not sure that the police will consider footage from a video game as evidence. And, for all I know, Fred Cawthon just saw some guy in the Chester Cheshire Cat suit lure those kids to this secret room. Unless he saw Charlie put the costume on and then lure in those kids, everything against him is just circumstantial. Including the body of that kid you found, Mario."

"But it's still a lead," Toad said.

"Yeah, Daddy, can't you just try?" Ellen asked.

"Well . . . . ." Kevin said, thoughtfully. Then he sighed, and picked up the phone. "This is probably going to put me out of a job, but I'll do it."

Kevin dialed the police and informed them of what Mario and his friends had found out. However, Luigi was suddenly getting a bad feeling about the whole thing.

"What's wrong, bro?" Mario asked. "You got that 'deer in the headlights' look on your face."

"I don't know, Mario," Luigi said. "I'm just getting a funny feeling that this isn't over."

"Don't worry, Luigi!" Toad shouted. "Once the cops bust Mr. Daniels, everything will be hunky dory!"

For some reason, Luigi didn't believe that for a minute.

When Claire came home from work that evening, Kevin played the tapes for her, and told her that he had called the police on his boss.

"You sure that was a good idea?" she asked.

"I had to," Kevin said. "I can't just let him get away with murder, you know! And after what Fred Cawthon said on that video game, I don't want to take a risk of Aimee and Ellen becoming victims! And even then, I'm not positive Charlie's the murderer."

"We're just trying to make sure, that's all, Mrs. Parker," Princess Toadstool explained.

Before Claire could say anything else, there was a banging sound at the front door. Ellen ran to answer it.

"Who is it?" she asked.

"Charlie Daniels," the person on the other side said, and did he ever sound mad! "Open the door, Ellen!"

"Uhhh, nobody's home!" Ellen shouted, and ran down the hall to her room.

"Ha, ha, ha, that was so funny I forgot to laugh!" Mr. Daniels shouted, sarcastically. Then he began banging on the door again. "You open up this door right now! I've got something to talk about with your daddy! NOW OPEN UP!"

"Charlie, what's the matter?" Claire asked, as she opened the door. "I could hear you yelling all the way in the den."

"Shove it, Claire!" Charlie shouted, storming into the house. "You're in on it by now, I'm sure!"

"Hello, Charlie," Kevin said, calmly. "What brings you here?"

"I got a visit today from two policemen," Mr. Daniels said. "They had a warrant to search Kittykins' Pizza Palace from top to bottom. You know what they found?"

"No," Kevin said, playing dumb. "What did they find?"

"Absolutely NOTHING!" Mr. Daniels yelled.

"If they didn't find anything, how come you're so mad?" Mario asked.

"Ah ha!" Mr. Daniels shouted. "I had a feeling _you'd_ be here! I saw you and your friends sneaking around the restaurant last night! I don't know where you got the idea that _I _was the one responsible for those missing kids, but I'll have you know it's _not_ true! And as for you, Parker, how _dare_ you call the cops on me?! I can't believe _you'd _believe such a cockamamy story like that!"

"Wait a minute," Luigi said. "How'd you know Mr. Parker called the police?"

"It figures he would," Mr. Daniels said. "You and your friends sneaking around my restaurant, finding out bogus information to ruin me . . . . and you're staying here, you guys fed him some made up story, he calls the cops . . . . it just figures."

"Charlie, calm down," Kevin said. "I only called the police as a precaution."

"So you admit it, then?" Mr. Daniels asked.

"Yes, I admit it," Kevin sighed. "I don't get why you're so angry about it, since they didn't find anything and . . . ."

"THAT'S NOT THE POINT, PARKER!" Mr. Daniels screeched. "You're fired! Consider our friendship over! And if I ever see _any_ of you around Kittykins' Pizza Palace ever again, I'm gonna have you arrested for trespassing!"

With that, Mr. Daniels stormed out, slamming the door behind him so hard, the pictures on the wall shook.

"Well . . . ." Kevin said. "That's that."

"I can't believe they didn't find anything!" Toad shouted. "What about those animatronic suits? Didn't they check those?! Didn't they find the secret room?!"

"Probably not," Luigi said. "Considering it's a _secret_ room. Mr. Daniels probably hid the animatronics and the rest of the evidence inside that room while the cops were searching other parts of the restaurant."

"I can't believe this jerk's gonna get away with murder!" Mario shouted.

"But there's no hard evidence that proves he's guilty, Mario!" Kevin shouted. "The video game footage could just be a coincidence! There's no positive proof that it was Mr. Daniels in the Chester costume! Come on, let's all forget about it."

Unfortunately, Mario couldn't forget about it. The whole thing was on his mind all night. He knew he had to do something. At quarter of midnight, he woke up Luigi.

"Bro, you and I have some more investigating to do," he said.

"What?" Luigi asked. "What do you mean investigating?"

"I just know Mr. Daniels is guilty, but the evidence we have isn't enough to convict him. We need _positive_ proof that he's the one who murdered those bambinos."

"I don't know, Mario. I don't think it's such a good idea. You remember what those animatronics did to you when they caught you? And how do we know those animatronics don't work for Mr. Daniels? What if he's set them to kill anyone who gets close to discovering he's the murderer?"

"If that plush doll you found was right about them wanting revenge on the 'Bad Man,' and you and I both know the 'Bad Man' is Daniels, how come the animatronics aren't out to get him?"

"Because Mr. Daniels isn't there during the night shift, that's why!"

"Look, Luigi, if you don't want to help, I'm gonna go in there by myself!"

And with that, Mario started to storm off. Luigi heaved a sigh, got up, and followed his brother.

"Okay, you win," he said. "I can't let you go back to that place alone."

"Great!" Mario shouted, holding up the video camera. "Now let's go catch us a killer!"


	10. Night 5

Mario and Luigi quietly entered the restaurant, and looked around. Nothing was out of the ordinary, until they walked into the dining area.

"Oh no . . . ." Luigi said. "Th-th-they're all gone!"

"Relax, Luigi," Mario said. "Everything's going to be okay. We just have to be extra careful. Let's go to the office first."

Luigi nodded, and he and Mario immediately crept to the security office, hoping the animatronics were elsewhere. Luckily for them, nobody seemed to be around, but Mario shut the door, anyway, just in case.

"Mario, I just thought of something," Luigi said.

"What's that, bro?" Mario asked.

"That Kittykins plush toy . . . . she said the animatronics were really the souls of the murdered kids. They're trapped in the suits, and blinded by their anger. She also said the souls are unable to rest."

"Hmm. Maybe we should look for that doll. If she helped you find me, maybe she'll help us figure out a way to free those kids' souls."

Luigi agreed, and the brothers walked to the backroom where the animatronics were kept. There they found the plush Kittykins doll, sitting on the workbench.

"Hi, Mr. Mario," she said, waving to the plumbers. "Hi, Mr. Luigi. What are you doing here?"

"We're trying to find more evidence to convict Mr. Daniels of murder," Mario said. "And we also want to try to free those poor kids' souls."

"Oh goody-goody!" Plush Kittykins shouted, clapping her paws. "You guys are just in time, too! After the police people came, they told the Bad Man that he had to close the restaurant forever."

"What's wrong with that?" Luigi asked.

"If the restaurant is closed down, and torn down," Plush Kittykins said, "and if the animatronics are destroyed, then the souls of the children will never be free."

"Mama mia!" Mario shouted. "Then we've got to do this tonight! Can you help us?"

"You're gonna have to do it one at a time," Plush Kittykins said. "First, there's Big Chicken. He's haunted by a little boy named Pete, who was six years old. He used to love to help his grandma in the kitchen. Mervin Griffin is haunted by a little boy named Seth, who was nine years old. He liked guitar music. Piggy Sue is haunted by a little girl named Betsy, who was seven years old. She loved collecting stuffed animals. Rudy Rat is being haunted by Keith, who was sixteen, and the oldest. I think you should do him last. I don't think the boy who haunts Kittykins will come out unless we do the other kids first."

"Okay," Mario said. "Let's go."

"Take me with you, Mr. Luigi," Plush Kittykins said, holding her arms up to Luigi. "I know how to help you! Tee hee!"

"Okay, just promise you won't go 'tee hee' at me again," Luigi said, picking up the plush cat.

"Okay. Tee hee!"

"What did I just say?!"

"Sorry, it's a reflex."

Mario and Luigi left the backroom, and began searching the restaurant. When they reached the dining area, they saw something that wasn't there before. It was a plate full of chocolate chip cookies.

"Hey great!" Mario shouted. "I'm starving!"

"I don't think you should, Mario," Luigi said. "What if it's a trap?"

"But I haven't eaten a thing all day, Luigi!" Mario shouted. "One little cookie won't hurt! Will it, PK?"

"Go ahead," Plush Kittykins said. "You'll be fine."

Luigi took a deep breath. He wasn't sure about this, but he had to admit, he was hungry. He and Mario both took a cookie from the plate, and took a tiny taste of it. The cookies tasted so good, they scarfed them down and began grabbing for more.

"Wow, these are the best cookies I've ever had!" Luigi shouted.

"Yeah, even better than Aunt Mia's garlic chip cookies!" Mario shouted, grabbing for another one.

"Ew," Plush Kittykins said, scrunching up her nose.

"You . . . . you really like them?" a southern accented voice asked. The brothers turned around, and saw Big Chicken standing behind them. Luigi gasped, and began backing away. Mario gulped, drew in his breath, and approached the giant rooster.

"Yeah, these are the best cookies I've ever tasted!" Mario shouted. Then he began to pat his belly for emphasis. "And, as you can see, I've had quite a few good cookies in my life!"

"I made them myself," Big Chicken said. "It's my grandma's recipe. She baked the best cookies ever. I used to go visit her all the time, and we'd bake cookies together . . . . before she died. She was really old when she died, but I miss her so much!"

"Don't be sad," Luigi said, forgetting about his fear for the moment. "You're going to see your grandma soon, and you can bake cookies with her again."

"Luigi's right," Mario said. "And thanks for the cookies. They were delicious."

Suddenly, a light surrounded Big Chicken, and a figure floated out of him. It was a little boy with red hair, green eyes, and freckles. He landed on the floor in front of the brothers, and Big Chicken became still.

"Hi," the little boy said. "My name's Pete. Thank you for letting me out!"

Pete ran over to Mario and gave him a big hug, and he gave one to Luigi, too. He began to cry just then.

"Hey, don't cry, paisano," Mario said. "Everything's gonna be okay."

"I'm crying 'cause I'm happy," Pete said. "I'm free now, but I can't leave yet. I can't leave until all the others are free."

"That's what we're here for," Luigi said. "Think you can help us?"

"Uh huh," Pete said, nodding. He handed Mario a key.

"What's this for?" Mario asked.

"That's to a big wooden box in the back room," Pete explained. "I'm going to the theater now. Meet me there when you get the others, okay?"

"You got it," Mario said.

Pete waved to Mario and Luigi, and ran to Rudy Rat's theater. The brothers then ran into the back room and found the box Pete was talking about. Mario used the key to open it, and found a guitar inside of it.

"What do we need that for?" Luigi asked.

"Don't you remember what PK said?" Mario asked. "She said the kid that haunts Mervin Griffin likes guitar music. Come on, let's go find him."

The brothers left the back room, and began searching around for Mervin. They found him pacing back and forth in front of the arcade.

"Excuse me, Mr. Griffin?" Mario asked, nervously. "But I think I have something that belongs to you!"

"Well, what do you know?" Mervin said, taking the guitar. "My mom was a great guitar player. She could play anything after hearing it only once. She was teaching me how to play. We had a special song we used to sing together at bedtime. It was an old song, back from when she was a kid. It was called Puff the Magic Dragon."

"I love that song!" Luigi shouted. "Sad ending, though."

"My mom always sang a verse she made up to make the ending happy," Mervin said. "But then Mom got really, really sick, and she died. I couldn't sing the song ever again after that. I couldn't bear to even hear it. I couldn't even bear to hear guitar music again . . . . and I broke my mom's guitar, because I was so angry at her for leaving."

Mervin sniffled, and began crying. Mario put his hand on the griffin's shoulder.

"It's okay," he said. "Everything's gonna be okay soon. You'll finally be at rest."

"And you're gonna see your mom again," Luigi said. "You'll be able to play guitar with her again."

Mervin looked up, and a light surrounded him. Just as with Big Chicken, a ghost child floated out of the Mervin animatronic. This one was a brown-haired boy with brown eyes. He looked at Mario and Luigi, and smiled happily.

"All right!" he shouted. "I'm finally out! Thank you! Thank you guys so much! I'll never forget this! Hey, listen, my real name's Seth. And I'll be sure to tell Mom about what you did for me!"

"You're welcome, Seth," Mario said.

"I'm gonna go to the theater now," Seth said. "I'll meet you guys there, okay?"

"Sure thing," Mario said.

"Oh, and take this key," Seth said, handing a key to Luigi. "It's for a box in the kitchen. It'll help you with Piggy Sue. Bye!"

"Bye," Mario said. "Well, bro, what do you say we check out the kitchen?"

"Sure," Luigi said. "As long as you promise not to go on a feeding frenzy in there."

Mario gave his little brother a dirty look, and the two of them walked inside the kitchen, where they found a wooden box, similar to the one they found inside the back room. Luigi opened it, and found a Piggy Sue plush doll, exactly like the Kittykins doll.

"What's that?" a voice asked. Mario and Luigi turned around, and found Piggy Sue standing there behind them.

"A Piggy Sue doll," Mario said, taking the doll from Luigi, and handing it to the animatronic. "For you. I heard from a very reliable source that you collect stuffed animals."

"I do," Piggy Sue said, taking the plush and cuddling it. "That is, I used to. But that was when I was still Betsy. My Aunt Susie used to give me all sorts of toys. She liked to travel a lot, and she would always bring me back a stuffed animal from wherever she went. She was my favorite aunt. Mommy and Daddy were too busy to bring me to Kittykins, so sometimes Aunt Susie would take me, and she would make sure I got all the characters. But Aunt Susie was killed in a plane crash before I ever got Piggy Sue in my collection."

"Awwww," Mario said, sympathetically. "I'm so sorry. It's rough to lose someone you love."

"Here," Luigi said, handing Piggy Sue the Kittykins plush. "Why don't you try giving Plush Kittykins a hug? It might make you feel a little better. Besides, you'll see your Aunt Susie again real soon."

Piggy Sue smiled at Luigi, and took the Kittykins doll. She hugged both dolls tightly, and the same light that surrounded Big Chicken and Mervin surrounded Piggy Sue, and the ghost of a blond-haired, blue-eyed little girl floated from the animatronic, holding both dolls.

"See, Betsy?" Mario asked. "Everything's going to be okay."

"Thank you!" Betsy shouted, hugging the Mario Brothers. "You're really nice. I didn't think I'd ever be able to trust a grown up again. Thank you for the plushies."

"You're welcome, Betsy," Luigi said.

"Come on," Betsy said, grabbing Luigi's hand. "Let's go to the theater! Everything should be ready now!"

"Okay," Mario said. "Let's go!"

Betsy led the Mario Bros. to Rudy Rat's Theater. The place was decorated to look like a birthday party. Pete and Seth were there, along with the animatronics of Big Chicken, Mervin Griffin, and Piggy Sue. The animatronics smiled, and waved to the brothers.

"We're free now too," Piggy Sue said. "Thanks to you two."

"You mean, you animatronics really _can_ move?" Mario asked.

"That's right," Big Chicken said. "Along with the Kittykins doll, we also protect the place, but we were too blinded by our anger at the Bad Man when the children were trapped inside of us to see clearly."

"Thanks for freeing us," Mervin said. "But there are two more souls you have to free."

Before anything else could happen, the door to the theater opened, and Rudy Rat came stomping in.

"Ah ha!" he shouted. "Now we've got them where we want them! Now it's time to finish them off!"

"Holy ravioli!" Luigi shouted. "It was a trap! I knew it!"

"Rudy, stop!" Piggy Sue shouted, stepping in front of Mario and Luigi, blocking Rudy's path.

"Stop?!" Rudy shouted. "What do you mean stop?! We have to kill them! They have to pay for what they did to us!"

"Keith, wait!" Seth shouted. "Look at us! Look at me, and Pete, and Betsy! We're free!"

"We're not in the robots anymore!" Pete shouted.

"These nice men freed us," Betsy said. "They don't work for the Bad Man!"

"They're innocent," Big Chicken said. "Like the children. We spent so many years killing innocent people, not thinking about who they were, whether or not they were innocent."

"You're wrong!" Rudy shouted. "You are all WRONG!"

"We know you're angry, Keith," Mervin said. "We know you're angry at so many people, but the anger has to stop, and it has to stop now!"

"We know you're in pain," Plush Kittykins said. "But I know how to help you. You have to confront Kittykins."

The theater door opened just then, and Kittykins walked into the theater. She didn't look at all happy.

"What's going on?!" she demanded. "Those two should be dead! Why haven't any of you killed them yet?!"

"They're friends," Piggy Sue said. "They're helping put the children to rest."

"Then why are they still here?!" Kittykins shouted. "Why am _I_ still here?!"

"Because there's still something to do," Big Chicken said. Then he turned to Rudy. "I think there's something you need to say to your brother, Keith."

Mario and Luigi looked at each other in shock. They couldn't believe that the child haunting Kittykins was Kyle, the boy that had been killed in the Bite of Eighty-Three incident. Rudy sighed, and walked up to Kittykins.

"I . . . . I didn't mean for it to happen," Rudy said, shakily. "I didn't _want_ it to happen like that. I never meant to kill my little brother. I really didn't! What kind of a monster would do such a thing? I'm a horrible brother!"

Rudy then burst into tears, and pulled Kittykins into a hug.

"I should have realized you were afraid," he said. "Instead, I teased you mercilessly! I called you a baby! I should have known better! I'm so sorry! I know you probably can't forgive me for what I've done, but from the bottom of my heart, I'm so sorry!"

"I . . . . I . . . ." Kittykins said. Then she wrapped her arms around Rudy. "I forgive you, Keith."

A light surrounded both Kittykins and Rudy, and the ghosts of Keith and Kyle Daniels floated out of the animatronics, still hugging each other, and crying.

"Oh, Keith!" Kyle shouted. "You really _do_ care about me! I let my anger control me, and all my friends, after what you did to me . . . . but I forgive you!"

"Thank you, little brother," Keith said, hugging Kyle tightly.

Luigi wiped a few stray tears from his eyes. The scene was so heartwarming, he couldn't help but cry himself. Mario was also shedding a few tears.

"Looks like all's well that ends well," he said.

"Not quite," Kittykins said. "Nobody here will ever be at rest until the Bad Man is gone."

"We know," Mario said. "But we don't know if he's even here or not."

"Oh, he's here," a voice said. Everyone turned to the door of the theater, and saw Chester the Cheshire Cat standing in front of it, holding a gun. He took off his head and revealed himself to be Charlie Daniels.

"I knew it!" Mario shouted. "I knew it was you!"

"Yeah, it's me all right," Mr. Daniels said, approaching the group. "Too bad you had to go poking your nose where it doesn't belong, Mario!"

Mr. Daniels walked further into the room, grabbed Luigi's arm, and began dragging him out of the room.

"Luigi!" Mario gasped.

"Mario! Help!" Luigi shouted. Mr. Daniels then covered Luigi's mouth with his hand, and shoved the barrel of his gun into the side of the green-clad plumber's head.

"Nobody move!" he shouted. "If any one of you makes a move, he's history!"

"What are you gonna do with my brother?!" Mario demanded.

"He's coming with me," Mr. Daniels said. "You so much as even _think_ about calling the police, Mario, your brother gets it! Now everybody just stay here until ten minutes after I leave the building!"

Mr. Daniels then dragged Luigi out of the theater, kicking the door shut. Mario raced to the door and tried to open it, but it was stuck.

"Great," he groaned. "Daniels must've locked it!"

Keith ran to the door himself, and looked out the window in the door. He saw his father pushing a large table from the dining room against the door. Mr. Daniels saw his son, and smirked at him. Luigi had been thrown to the floor while Mr. Daniels had been pushing the table against the theater entrance. He figured, while Mr. Daniels was busy, he'd try to escape and get help, but before he could, he felt someone grab the back of his overalls, and pull him backwards.

"Going somewhere, Luigi?" Mr. Daniels asked. "I don't think so!"

Luigi was about to call for help, but Mr. Daniels covered his mouth before he could. The thick material of the Cheshire cat costume made it impossible for Luigi's voice to be heard. All that could be heard was Mr. Daniels' maniacal laughter.

* * *

_AUTHOR'S NOTE: For those of you who haven't played the game this fic is based on, or haven't watched a playthrough, please do NOT go into the game expecting a scene like what happens at the end of this chapter. Everything after the brothers' souls are free is something I made up, mainly because I suffer from something called "Torture Your Favorite Character Syndrome."_


	11. The Confession

Mario banged on the door, trying to break it down. He knew it wouldn't do much good, considering it was a heavy, metal door.

"Forget it, Mario, you'll never be able to open it!" Keith shouted. "Even if you did, Dad blocked the door with one of the dining room tables! The door opens outwardly."

"Well, you're a ghost, can't you just go through the walls or something?!" Mario shouted.

"Not all ghosts work that way," Keith said.

"And even if we could, we couldn't move the table," Kyle said. "I'm not even sure how Dad did it!"

"Mama mia . . . ." Mario groaned. "If we don't get out of here, that psychopath's gonna kill my brother!"

"And the kids' souls will be here for all eternity," Mervin said. "What are we gonna do?"

"I think I have an idea!" Kittykins shouted. "Follow me, Mario, and bring that camera! You might need it!"

Mario jumped onto the stage and followed Kittykins behind the curtain. There were a lot of computers, control panels, and buttons there. Mario knew these were the controls for the animatronics.

"This leads backstage to the dining room," Kittykins explained. "All the backstage areas are connected to each other by this hallway. All you have to do is go get on the dining room stage, and head for the office."

"Hey, I just thought of something," Mario said. "What if Mr. Daniels is in the office right now? He could be checking on the rooms with the security camera!"

"I know how to fix that," Kittykins said. "We've been putting the power out for six years now. But I also know how to cut off the security cameras by themselves. The Bad Man will think it's a battery issue if he's watching, but if he wants to get away, he won't bother to replace them! Tee hee!"

"I just had another thought. What if he's in the office, and the door is locked?"

"You got the keys, don't you?"

Mario reached into his pocket to grab the restaurant keys. When he didn't find them, he checked all over his overalls for places he could have kept him. Then he remembered what he did with them, and smacked his hand over his eyes.

"No!" he shouted. "I left them in the door when we came in! Ooooh, I'm such a stupido!"

Kittykins put her hand to her chin, looked around, and murmured thoughtfully. Then she snapped her fingers (resulting in a metallic clanking sound), and ran to an air vent. She grabbed the grating in front of it, and yanked it off.

"You look like you could fit in here," she said. "Just be careful. The Bad Man hasn't cleaned the vents out in, like, six years. But it's the fastest way to the office. Better hurry! The Bad Man will probably kill Luigi before he leaves!"

"Thanks, Kittykins," Mario said. He tucked the video camera into his overalls, and climbed through the vent.

Kittykins had certainly been right to warn Mario about the cleanliness of the vent. It was disgusting in there. There was mold, mildew, and cobwebs all over the place. He was surprised air could even flow through these things! Finally, he reached the office, and looked through the grate. He saw Luigi sitting in the chair, with his wrists tied to the arm rests with duct tape. His ankles were taped together, and piece of duct tape was covering his mouth. He was struggling to get loose. Mr. Daniels wasn't around, so Mario removed the vent and jumped down into the office.

"Mmmph!" Luigi shouted.

"Don't worry, Luigi!" Mario shouted. "I'll have you out of here in two shakes of a calamari's tail!"

Unfortunately, before Mario could do anything, he heard footsteps coming toward the office. Luigi gasped, and began shaking nervously.

"Uh oh!" Mario shouted. "That could be Daniels! I gotta hide! If he finds out I'm in here, he'll kill us both, and we'll never be able to bring him to justice!"

Luigi began to shake his head toward a door in the corner of the office. He was mumbling something, but with the tape over his mouth, Mario couldn't understand him. Luckily, Mario got the gist of what Luigi was trying to tell him. He opened the door, and found it was nothing but a coat closet.

"Oh, I get it!" Mario shouted. "I'll hide in here for the time being!"

"Mm hmm!" Luigi shouted, nodding.

Immediately, Mario dashed into the closet, and only shut the door partway. He left a crack open so he could videotape what was going to happen.

Shortly after Mario hid, Mr. Daniels walked into his office, still wearing the Cheshire cat suit, without the head. He was carrying a toolbox, and what looked like a three-foot robotic cat. It looked exactly like Kittykins, except it had blue eyes, a frilly pink and purple dress, and high brown pigtails held in purple plastic ball ponytail holders. He put the robot cat and the toolbox down, walked over to Luigi, and ripped the tape off his mouth.

"Ow!" Luigi shouted. "Watch it, will ya?!"

"Oh can it!" Mr. Daniels shouted. "I assume you're wondering why I've gone to all this trouble. Why I did it, and so on."

"The thought _has_ crossed my mind," Luigi said. "Why'd you kill Keith like that? He was your own son! After all, what happened to Kyle _was_ just an accident!"

"You think so, eh?" Mr. Daniels asked, with an evil chuckle. "Well, you won't be around long enough to tell anybody . . . . so I might as well tell you what _really_ happened."

Mr. Daniels opened a panel inside of the cat robot, and began fiddling with it while he told his story.

"Everyone _thought_ it was an accident," he said, not bothering to look up from his work. "But it _wasn't_. One of my biggest regrets was getting married and having kids in the first place. My oldest was a monster, pure and simple. Your brother figured that one out already. My younger son was a whiny baby. Between the two of them, I just couldn't take it any longer. No matter what my wife and I did, we couldn't discipline Keith, and Kyle's constant whining was driving me out of my skull! That's when I got a brilliant idea. I knew what Keith was up to that day. I knew what he was planning. I knew he was planning to stick Kyle's head in Kittykins' mouth! All I had to do was make it look like an accident. During the show, I snuck backstage, and took over the controls for Kittykins, manually. I made sure to have Kittykins close her mouth right when Kyle's head was in it!"

"You did _what_?!" Luigi shouted, incredulously.

"You heard me! That put Kyle in a two week coma. Keith felt so guilty, it was easy to manipulate him into thinking he was the one who did it! But I was afraid he would eventually find out what I had done, so I had to silence him. My wife and daughter were still in the house, so I couldn't very well take Keith's body and bury it then and there, so I stuffed it into the Rudy Rat costume in my basement, and took it to the restaurant later. Kyle was being stubborn, unfortunately. He was in a coma, sure, but he was taking far too long to die, so I just decided to put him out of his misery while my wife and daughter weren't home, and put him inside the Kittykins suit."

"I can't believe a father would actually _murder_ his own kids!"

"Give me a break! It happens all the time! Don't you watch the news?! I'm not the first person to murder their kids, and I certainly won't be the last! Anyway, after my boys died, my wife left me and took my daughter with her. Not that it mattered. I was glad to be rid of the old shrew, anyway. But she had no idea I was the one who caused the death of our boys. She didn't even know Keith was dead to begin with! I convinced her he ran away from home because the guilt of what he did to Kyle was too much for him to bear. And, being the idiot that she was, she bought it!"

"I suppose you were gonna kill them, too, if they hadn't left?"

"If they came close to finding out, I would have!"

Luigi shook his head in disgust. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. And Mr. Daniels just stood there, without any remorse, whatsoever, fiddling with this metal cat contraption. Luigi then glanced over at the closet where Mario was hiding, to see what his reaction was. Instead, he noticed his brother was holding the video camera, taping everything. Luigi smiled, and then turned back to Mr. Daniels.

"So what about Pete, Betsy, and Seth?" he asked. "What did they ever do to you?"

"Nothing, really," Mr. Daniels said. "You see, after I offed my boys, I felt something strange. You wouldn't be_lieve_ the thrill I got, plunging a knife into my son's neck! It gave me _such_ a high, I _had_ to do it again! But I didn't know how. I spent three years trying to figure out how I could do it. How I could get away with it. I didn't get the idea until both the Fun-derland Forest, _and_ Rudy Rat's theater broke down one day. I took this Cheshire cat suit off the animatronic in the Fun-derland Forest, and put it on. Since I built the stupid thing, I knew how to get it on and off without killing myself. Then, I lured the kids into the theater without anyone noticing. First, I killed the two boys. But the girl . . . . heh, heh, heh . . . . oh how much fun I had with her!"

"I don't like your definition of fun, fella! That's just sick! Not only is it sick, it's also twisted, demented, and depraved!"

Mr. Daniels stopped fiddling with the robot, looked up at Luigi, and glared at him in silence for several seconds. Then he slapped him across the face as hard as he could. Mario growled softly, but stifled the urge to race out there and rip Mr. Daniels to shreds. He had more important work to do.

"I _had_ to kill her after that," Mr. Daniels said. "She would have told what I did if I hadn't. You can understand that, can't you?"

"No, I can't!" Luigi shouted.

"Whatever. That's when I built the secret room. I don't know how in the world you and your friends managed to find it, but that's where I hid the bodies of anyone who either got too close to finding out my secret, or those who were unlucky enough to be caught by Kittykins and her friends."

"There's just one thing I don't understand. How come they never went after you? You were the one who killed them, and they were out for revenge on their murderer!"

"Simple. All I had to do was put on Chester the Cheshire Cat's head, and they'd think I was one of them!"

Mr. Daniels laughed diabolically, and continued to work on the cat robot. Luigi looked at him as if he were completely nuts.

"So that's it, huh?" he asked. "You just killed those kids for no reason, other than it gave you a thrill?"

"Of course," Mr. Daniels said.

"And can I correctly assume you were gonna do the same to Aimee and Ellen Parker? Aimee told us you kept trying to get them alone in Rudy Rat's theater!"

"Quite possibly. Heh, heh, heh . . . ."

"Let me tell ya something, fella, you have _got_ to be the sickest, most twisted, most depraved, most dis_gust_ing slime bag I have _ever_ met! And that's saying something, considering I've known quite a few slime bags!"

Mr. Daniels glared at Luigi, and slapped him across the face again, this time harder than before. Mario was getting a little hot under the collar by this point, but he knew he had to remain silent. He couldn't let Mr. Daniels know he was there, recording his every word.

"Shut up!" Mr. Daniels shouted. "The cops are never gonna catch up to me! They couldn't find anything that would convict me when they searched the place today! And, nobody ever will, either! I'm skipping town tonight, and I'll open a new restaurant somewhere else, and no one will ever be the wiser!"

"Oh yeah?" Luigi asked. "And what makes you so sure I'm not gonna get outta this, and go tell the cops?"

"Simple. I'm gonna burn this place to the ground right before I leave. That's what I was doing after I tied you up! Dousing the floors and walls with gasoline! Not only with that take care of the evidence, but it will also take care of your nosy brother as well! Everyone knows the place is just a big fire trap, anyway."

"You know you won't get away with this!"

"I knew you were going to say that. But it doesn't matter. You don't have to worry about that. You won't be subjected to the fire, anyway."

"How come?"

"Remember that video game Fred Cawthon made, where he mentioned I was working on a secret project? A robot known as Babykins? Well, here she is. My masterpiece!"

"What's she supposed to do?"

"Lure more children into my secret room so I can kill them, silly boy!"

Mr. Daniels let out an evil cackle, grabbed a roll of duct tape from the desk, and tore off a piece. He pressed the piece of tape over Luigi's mouth, then walked over to Babykins, and pressed a button on her back.

"And you're the lucky person who'll be her first victim!" he laughed, maniacally.

Luigi gasped, as Babykins lumbered toward him, with her hands outstretched, as if she were out to grab him. She had razor sharp, steel claws extended, each at least twelve inches long. Her pigtails began spinning as well, turning into weapons of distruction. Luigi struggled as hard as he could, trying to break free. The only thing he could do was push the chair away from Babykins, but it wasn't going to do much good in the long run, as he only wound up backing himself into the wall. Mr. Daniels just stood there, cackling like a mad man, enjoying every minute of this. Mario couldn't stand it any longer. He raced out of the closet, jumped into the air, and kicked the robot cat over, causing her to land on her back. Luckily, the force of the landing de-activated her power button. Her claws retracted and her pigtails stopped spinning the minute she powered down.

"Oh no you don't!" Mario shouted.

Luigi heaved a huge sigh of relief. Mario then picked up a crowbar, and began smashing Babykins to pieces.

"My masterpiece!" Mr. Daniels shouted. "What are you doing to my masterpiece?!"

Mario didn't say anything. He just punched Mr. Daniels in the face, causing him to stumble backwards and crash into the wall. Then Mario ran over to Luigi, and peeled the tape off his mouth and wrists.

"Sorry I took so long to help you, bro," he said. "But I just wanted to make sure I got everything on tape."

"That's okay, Mario," Luigi said, untaping his ankles, and standing up.

Suddenly, sirens filled the air, and the group heard the front doors of the restaurant opening.

"The cops!" Mr. Daniels shouted. "All right, who called them?!"

"Don't look at me," Mario said. "But it doesn't matter, anyway. Your goose is cooked now, fella! I got everything you said right here on video tape, and once the police see it, you're gonna go to jail for life! Maybe even longer!"

"You really think so, huh?" Mr. Daniels asked, picking up the discarded crowbar. "Well, you're wrong!"

Mr. Daniels swung the crowbar, and whacked Mario in the head with it. Mario fell to the floor, completely dazed.

"Mario!" Luigi shouted. Before he could run to his brother, Mr. Daniels grabbed him.

"Oh no you don't!" he shouted. "You're coming with me, whether you like it or not! And if your brother knows what's good for you, Luigi, he won't give that tape to the cops! YOU HEAR ME, MARIO?!"

Mr. Daniels then laughed, and began dragging Luigi out of the office. He walked into the dining room, where the cops were gathered, along with Princess Toadstool, Toad, and Kevin. The cops raised their guns, but Princess Toadstool grabbed one of the officer's by the arm.

"Don't shoot!" she shouted. "He's got Luigi!"

"Wise decision, lady," Mr. Daniels said, pressing the barrel of his gun against Luigi's head again. Luigi struggled, but couldn't escape Mr. Daniels' iron grip.

"If anyone makes one move, just _one_ move," Mr. Daniels warned, "I'll blow his brains out!"

"He's not kidding, you guys!" Luigi shouted. "The guy is completely out of his head!"

"You shut up!" Mr. Daniels shouted, clamping his hand over Luigi's mouth, and shoving the gun into Luigi's temple. "Or else, buster!"

"What happened to Mario?" Toad asked.

"I'm right here," Mario said, coming out to the dining room. "And, unfortunately, I can't do a thing, as long as he's holding my brother hostage!"

"Smart move, fatty," Mr. Daniels said.

"Charlie, you don't know what you're doing!" Kevin shouted. "I've known you for years, and this isn't you! Whatever happened to my buddy? My best buddy, the guy who was on the baseball team with me, the robotics genius who built all these wonderful creations, the guy who's goal in life was to make children happy with these characters?"

"Shut up, Parker!" Mr. Daniels shouted. "There was a side to me I kept secret, the _real_ me! I'm tired of being a Mr. Goody Two Shoes, like you! I _never_ wanted to make children happy! I was meant for bigger and better things! My genius was _wasted_ on those germ-infested, snot-nosed little brats! Now shut your trap, and don't make any false moves!"

"What are we gonna do now?" Toad asked.

"Unfortunately, nothing," one of the police officer said. "We even try to shoot him, we may end up hitting your friend by mistake."

"And, if you try to shoot me, I'll shoot Luigi!" Mr. Daniels shouted. "So you guys are at a disadvantage! Coppers, drop your guns!"

The officers looked at each other, and dropped their weapons. Mr. Daniels smiled evilly.

"Good," he said. "Now, everybody is gonna do everything I tell them to do. If you don't, Luigi here's gonna wind up with a hole in his head, and I'm sure we don't want _that_, do we, Mario?"

"Listen, Mr. Daniels," Mario said, nervously. "Let's make a deal here. We'll do everything you ask us to if you just let Luigi go!"

"Oh no," Mr. Daniels said. "He's coming with me! I can't take my chances, after all. Okay, now, what I want you all to do now is stay here. Stay in this dining room until after an hour I leave. Heh, heh, heh."

Mr. Daniels smiled sneakily at the policemen, as well as Mario, Toad, Princess Toadstool, and his former best friend. He slowly made his way through the dining room, toward the exit. Luigi continued to struggle. He had to get away. He knew Mr. Daniels was going to lock Mario, Toad, the princess, Kevin, and the police officers inside the restaurant and set it on fire. He also knew Mr. Daniels would likely kill him, too, as soon as they were far enough away out of town, and nobody would be able to pin anything on the guy. But there just didn't seem like there was a way to escape. He was just about to give up all hope when he realized something. The Cheshire cat suit Mr. Daniels was wearing was exactly like the Kittykins suit he and the others had found Mario stuffed in the night before. Aimee's words came back to him just then.

_Those suits are loaded with spring locks! They hold back the animatronic parts. You set one off wrong, it causes a chain reaction, and they'll all go off at once._

Luigi managed to pull one of his hands free, and reached up toward the neck of the Cheshire cat suit. Mr. Daniels didn't even notice. He was too busy gloating about getting away with his crimes. Luigi managed to get his hand inside the costume, and very carefully, set off one of the spring locks. He was barely able to pull his hand out before it got snapped, as the spring locks immediately began to go off. Mr. Daniels then realized what was going on, and immediately let go of Luigi, practically flinging him into the wall.

"_AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH_!" he screamed in sheer agony.

Everyone stood there watching Mr. Daniels fall to the ground, screaming and writhing in pain. Nobody really knew what to do at this point. Blood began to spurt out of the costume. Princess Toadstool had to cover her eyes after awhile. Toad felt like he was going to be sick to his stomach. Finally, the screaming stopped, but Mr. Daniels writhed a bit before he finally stopped and became still. One of the officers slowly approached him, and checked for a pulse. Then he stood up, and shook his head. Mario, Princess Toadstool, Toad, and Kevin immediately ran to Luigi.

"Oh, Luigi, are you all right?" the princess asked.

"You're not hurt, are you?" Mario asked. "If he hurt you, I swear, I'll . . . .

"I think it's a little late for _that_, Mario," Toad pointed out.

"Don't worry, you guys, I'm okay," Luigi said. Then he turned to a couple of officers. "Hey, uh, I'm not gonna get into any trouble for killing that guy, am I?"

"I don't think so," one of the officers said. "It was a clear case of self-defense, if you ask me."

"Yeah, the guy had a gun pointed at your head," the other officer said. "Don't worry, we'll take care of this."

"Here, you might want to take this, too," Mario said, taking the tape out of the camcorder and handing it to one of the officers. "It's got his entire confession on it. I don't think it'll do much good now, considering he's dead. But maybe it'll help the families of those poor kids find some kind of closure."

The officer nodded, and took the tape. Mario heaved a sigh, and he and Luigi looked back at the building. They could see five figures rising out from the roof, and heading up to the sky. It was Kyle, Keith, Pete, Betsy, and Seth. They were finally free of their prison. They smiled, and waved to the Mario Bros. Mario and Luigi looked at each other, and smiled themselves.

"Come on, guys," Mario said. "Let's head out."


	12. Kittykins' Big Comeback

The next morning, Mario and Luigi filled Claire, Aimee, and Ellen in on what had happened.

"I _knew_ it!" Aimee shouted. "I knew the place was haunted!"

"You sure did," Princess Toadstool said.

"We're both sorry we didn't believe you, sweetheart," Claire said, giving Aimee's shoulders a squeeze.

"That's okay, Mom," Aimee said. "Actually, if I hadn't seen it, I probably wouldn't have believed it, either!"

"And I knew Mr. Daniels was a big, ugly, yucky old creep-a-zoid!" Ellen shouted.

"You said it, kiddo," Mario said.

"I hope I _never_ have to go through something like that again!" Luigi shouted. "I'd rather face King Koopa and his entire army than face somebody like Charlie Daniels again! Eee-_yikes_!"

"But why did he want to kill those kids, anyway?" Ellen asked.

"Because he was sick," Mario said. "Sick in the head, that is. Some people get a big kick out of hurting others like that. And they don't get help when they really should."

"There's something I don't get, though," Princess Toadstool said. "That photo you found on the first night, Mario. The note written on the back of it. Mr. Daniels sounded like he was regretting what he did."

"He probably planted it to throw off suspiscion," Toad said. "I doubt this guy had any remorse for anything he ever did!"

"Who knows?" Mario said, shrugging. "He might have at the time. That photo was from nineteen eighty-three, after all. Maybe he just snapped after he wrote that note."

"I wish he'd had gone to jail, though," Aimee said. "He deserved to be locked up forever, left to rot in prison for the rest of his miserable life!"

"Yeah, but at least we know he won't be able to hurt anyone ever again," Luigi pointed out. "Thanks to you, Aimee."

"Thanks to me?" Aimee asked. "What do you mean? I didn't do anything! I wasn't even there!"

"I remembered what you said about setting off the spring locks in the animal suits," Luigi explained. "If I hadn't, who knows what would've happened!"

"Yeah, bro," Mario said. "You could have wound up being the next victim! But I'm glad you weren't."

"Believe me, bro, so am I!" Luigi shouted.

"But there's just one thing that bothers me. How did the police get involved? Someone had to have called them."

"We did," Toad said.

"What?" Luigi asked.

"Yeah," Toad said. "Me, and the princess, and Kevin. We called the police!"

"But how did you know, Toad?" Mario asked. "I didn't get a chance to find a phone to let you know what was going on. Did you call him, Luigi? After all, you were in the office, and there _was _a phone on the desk."

"Not me," Luigi said. "I was tied to a chair and had a piece of tape over my mouth, remember? I couldn't have made a phone call if I wanted to."

"It was really weird," Toad said. "But someone called here. It was a high pitched kinda voice, definitely female. She said to call the police and come to Kittykins' Pizza Palace right away, because you guys were in big trouble. The weird thing was after I said I'd come, she said 'oh goody,' and went 'tee hee' before I hung up."

"Tee hee?" Ellen asked. "Isn't that what Kittykins always does? And doesn't she always say 'oh goody,' when she's really happy?"

Mario and Luigi looked at each other in surprise. They couldn't believe the Kittykins animatronic had called Toad. They decided not to say anything about it. Toad, the princess, Kevin and Claire wouldn't have believed it, anyway.

"So now that Kittykins' Pizza Palace is officially un-haunted," Mario said, "is it going to open back up for business?"

"Unfortunately, no," Kevin said. "There is no way the Health Department is going to allow that building to remain in business. And I doubt they'll even let it remain standing after this! Charlie really let the cleanliness of that place go!"

"Yeah, wait'll they see the vents!" Mario shouted. "I had to crawl through them to get to the office. Yuck!"

"My guess is that was because he was afraid the cleaning crew might have discovered Keith and Kyle's bodies in the suits," Princess Toadstool said.

"Not to mention the place was doused with gasoline," Luigi said. "If I hadn't tripped the spring locks, Daniels would've set the place on fire, with all of you guys in it."

"So the building's unusable," Toad said, shrugging. "But what about the robots? Can't they be salvaged?"

"The damage done to the suits is too severe," Kevin replied, shaking his head. "Those blood stains are never going to come out, and I don't think that terrible odor of those bodies left in them will ever go away! That, and I highly doubt anyone is going to want to come to a restaurant where they know people have been murdered."

"Which is a shame," Claire said, "because lots of people really _did_ love Kittykins and her friends."

"That's really too bad," Princess Toadstool said.

"Yeah, I'd hate to see them go," Mario said. "Now that I know they're not homicidal maniacs."

"MARIO!" everyone else in the room screamed, glaring at the plumber.

"Sorry, it slipped," Mario said, shrugging sheepishly.

"Well, I don't think all is completely lost when it comes to Kittykins and her friends," Kevin said. "The police gave me some of Charlie's things at the restaurant last night, and among them were the blueprints for the animatronic characters."

"Remember I told you Dad helped build the animatronics," Aimee said. "I'm sure he can rebuild them by himself."

"With a little help from some of the restaurant's technical engineers that are still left," Kevin said.

"And I do know of a place that would make a great restaurant and arcade," Claire said.

"You just leave everything to my dad," Aimee said. "Kittykins will make a comeback!"

Some time later, Mario and the gang returned to Central City. They had received an invitation to the grand reopening of Kittykins' Pizza Palace. When they walked through the doors, they noticed things were different than they were the first time they entered. It was much brighter, and a lot cleaner looking. It was also packed with people. The employees were very friendly, and happy to help out (unlike the bored looking teenage girl the group had encountered when they first entered the place).

"Hi, guys!" Aimee shouted, running over. "I'm so glad you came!"

"We wouldn't miss this for the world!" Mario shouted.

"He didn't want to miss this because there's food involved," Toad said.

"Well, come with me, and I'll show you to your seats," Aimee said. "We saved them for you right down front for the show!"

"Sounds good to me," Princess Toadstool said.

Mario and the gang followed Aimee to one of the tables in front of the stage and sat down. Shortly afterward, a waitress came by and set a large pizza, with the works, down in front of them. Immediately, Mario grabbed a slice. The others weren't surprised at all.

"I knew the minute we got food on the table, he'd start chowing down," Toad said.

"We'd better get some before Mario eats the whole thing," Luigi said, reaching for a slice.

Just then, the house lights began to go down, and the stage lights came on. The curtains opened, and revealed Kittykins, Big Chicken, Rudy Rat, Mervin Griffin, and Piggy Sue. Kevin had redesigned them slightly, and they didn't look as creepy as they did when Mario and the gang first encountered them.

"Hi, everybody!" the Kittykins animatronic shouted, waving. "Welcome to the show! I'm Kittykins, and these are my friends. Hope everybody's having a good time, because we're here to celebrate!"

"Yahoo!" Big Chicken, Rudy, Mervin, and Piggy Sue shouted, coming to life. Then they all broke into a rendition of Kool & The Gang's "Celebration."

"I'd like to introduce you all to someone new," Kittykins said, once the song was over. "How many people here have a brother or a sister?"

Several kids in the audience raised their hands. This also included Mario. He was just so caught up in the moment, he couldn't help himself.

"Well, I have a little sister, too," Kittykins said. "Everybody meet Babykins!"

A corner of the stage lit up, revealing a smaller cat animatronic that looked exactly like Kittykins. She wore frilly pink and purple dress, and purple bows in her ears.

"Hi, everybody!" she shouted. "I'm so happy to be here! Wanna sing a song with me?"

"YES!" all the kids in the audience shouted.

Babykins then began singing "If You're Happy and You Know It." Most of the little kids (and quite a few older ones and adults as well) played along. Most of the show was filled with the animatronics singing pop songs, and Babykins singinging some classic children's songs, with some snappy patter in between. It was a bit corny, but the kids in the audience loved it. Almost all of them got up and danced along to the music, and sang along to some of the children's songs. At the end of the show, Kittykins looked around at the audience, and seemed to look at Mario and Luigi. She seemed to wave directly to the two of them, and winked.

"Thanks for coming to see me!" she said. "I hope we'll be friends forever! Tee hee!"

"And a 'tee hee' to you, too, Miss Kittykins," Mario said, tipping his hat to the animatronic cat. "A very fond 'tee hee' to you, my feline friend!"

The End

* * *

_AUTHOR'S NOTE: My thanks to TasteGaming on YouTube, since it was his playthrough I used as a reference when writing this fanfic. I also want to give thanks to my cat, Snowball, for the naming of two of the animatronics. "Kittykins" and "Babykins" are two of her many nicknames. What can I say? I'm a crazy cat lady (sorry not sorry)._


End file.
